Dark Rising
by DarkOblivion17
Summary: the back story to my oc Dark oblivion, please read and let me know if i should up the rating
1. how it began

How it Began

Sometimes the smallest things do the most damage. Since everything happened I've abandoned my original name, it was too common as it is. Now I go by the name Dark Oblivion, but just call me Dark. I used to be a normal guy who loved to write stories, and excluding the normal part I still am. In my stories I created a character, Shadow Knights, a man with tragic beginning who got the chance to create his dream world and he did.

The stories continued on and shadow became a figure shrouded by love, hate and confusion, he could do anything he wanted and most of the time he did. The entity that allowed him to make his dream real and achieve this power didn't like it. He was called the Dreamcaster, he came to Shadow's planet and attempted to destroy it and Shadow himself for fear of his dream spiraling out of control. Shadow fought and defeated Dreamcaster, who made Shadow swear to defend his dream as long as he could. After that Shadows life went a bit easier, a war broke out on the planet but after a long struggle toward a somewhat peaceful end an unknown woman took out the head of the aggressive power. Shadow took a liking to her.

I continued to write throwing, as many weird things as I could come up with into Shadows life. A failed cloning attempt that resulted in a girl he takes in as his daughter, orphan, a manic alter ego, his easily pissed off girlfriend. Then I made the first mistake. I created a new threat. Dreamcaster's brother, Nightmare, a being who could turn anything his brother made and destroy it from the inside out. I didn't like where things were going and I stopped writing. The biggest mistake of any I ever made connected to all this…But I'm ruining the story, you want to find out what happened keep reading.


	2. Painful Dreams

Painful Dreams

All right, this is when things in my life began to get a little weird. It all started one day after school, I had just gotten off the bus on a half day so my long time friend Travis and me were just hanging around talking.

" So Charles, you doing anything today?" Travis asked me, as we walked into the playground of our old elementary school.

" Nah, why?" I asked staring at the sky.

" I was gonna go to the mall with Chris and Jerry, want to come?" he continued as we sat down on the stair that led to the teachers parking lot.

" Maybe, I'm going try to write a new story today." I replied confidently.

" Damn it Charles, you better be a famous writer someday. If you ever finish a story." Travis said disappointed.

" Screw you, dude." I said shoving him, " I'm heading home, where are you going."

" My mom's today." He replied as he grabbed his bag, " peace."

" See ya." And with that we went our separate ways.

I went straight home, greeting my parents as I got in and went straight to my room. I immediately threw my book bag to the side and whipped out my book designated for story writing. I had planned on writing a story about a character I thought up named patchwork, but I couldn't figure out how to start it. I sat in place for at least an hour just trying to put the first word in the book but nothing came, and before I knew it I was asleep.

Normally when I sleep I never dream about one thing, Shadow and all of the ridiculously one-sided fights I put him in. But today was different…

" _What the hell?"_ I thought as I woke up at the edge of an immense wasteland, _"What the fuck is this…"_

" Here they come." An unknown but somehow familiar voice said behind me.

" It can't be…" I mumbled as a person landed in front of me and turned around. There he was black pants, black shoes, and a purple sleeveless shirt, black bandages on his torso and arms, and a trench coat that was a bit torn up at the bottom. " Shadow?"

Shadow glanced back and looked me in the eye as a group of 5 wolves strode up beside him.

" Something wrong?" the large gray wolf asked shadow as he turned his back to me.

" No, I thought a sensed a strong power… but it's a long shot." Shadow replied his voice falling away.

The ground began to shake; in the distance I saw a huge black cloud rushing toward us. It was comprised A massive pack of black beasts resembling skinny hellhounds, with long sharp claws and sharp blades sticking out of their shoulders. Leading them was a huge Cerberus; it's eyes striking fear into my soul even at a distance. Suddenly time skipped forward and I was in the middle of a clash between the hellhounds and shadow's forces. A number of warriors I've never seen and a few that I had included in my previous stories for shadow fought valiantly against the hellhounds. Shadow's forces had a clear advantage in strength, but the hellhounds had their numbers and deadly build.

" Why's this happening, I never wrote this?" I said to myself as I watched the battle rage around me.

I could hardly take it in, then a hellhound bounded in front of me glaring at me with its bloodthirsty eyes. It leapt at me slashing its claws and I jumped to the side, I was surprised to find that I not only got hurt but the wound was bleeding.

"Th-this is a dream, I can't get hurt." I muttered to myself as the hellhound bore down on me again. Out of the battle an arrow hit it's mark in the hellhounds skull, and the creature fell over, dead. I looked in the direction of the arrow to see whom I owed my life to, she was an archer with brown hair that had a blue streak on one side and she wore a green ranger's outfit. I knew who she was, her name was Aya a character I had created and hardly used.

" You need to be more careful!" she called as she launched another arrow at a hellhound creeping up behind me. I couldn't help but give a shy smile, she was a great deal more beautiful than I had originally imagined.

But my little moment was short lived as shadow zoomed through the air overhead and the Cerberus crashed down over Aya knocking her to the ground. I could only look on in horror as the beast two her in the jaws off its middle head and shook her violently, it then proceed to throw her up in the air all three heads snapping at her as she fell back to earth. The head closest to me caught her then flung her broken body in my direction.

She landed a few feet in front of me, covered in blood, eyes wide with shock, her limbs contorted in the broke disturbing ways. The ways she had landed left her staring me in the eye, my own body numb from shock. As the last of the life faded from her body she managed to smile at me, satisfaction in her eyes. I couldn't believe it, no tears, barely even a scream during the short ordeal, and she died smiling because she saved me.

The pain from my wound disappeared, everything around slowed, rage and sorrow built in my heart. A hellhound jumped down behind and bit down hard on my shoulder, I didn't flinch. Thoughtlessly I reached back and grabbed its jaw and pried it open, and then with one swift pull I broke it's jaw. The creature howled in pain as I stood up a charged toward the Cerberus.

" I'll kill you!" I shouted as I jumped into the air, then I was suddenly back in my room. I hadn't noticed right away but hours had passed, my mind racing over what I had just seen. Then a pain erupted from my side, the wound from the hell hound was still there.

" Fuck…" I said cringing from the pain, the image of Aya's death replaying in my mind. "What the hell was that."

Fighting through the pain I found my mom's first aid kit and did my best to patch myself up. Then physically and mentally drained I went back to my room and collapsed into my bed. I was too tired to try and keep myself awake for fear of having another dream. Luckily no dreams came to me again that night, but it was only the beginning of something much more troublesome.


	3. another day at school

Meeting Shadow 

The next day started off pretty normal, but that's where the normality ends. As I said the day started off normally, I got up got dressed and went to school. I met Travis and we talked a bit before getting on the bus when it arrived. I made sure not to mention my dream or make to much of a big deal about the injury from it either, which at the time had only just began to heal. Now things really didn't get interesting until my first period class, so that where I'll start this time.

" _Lucked out, didn't realize I had U.S. history first period_._"_ I thought as the pain in my side flared up again, caused me to bend over my desk in pain.

" Charles, you okay." My teacher asked breaking away from the lesson.

" I'm fine Mr. Corbett." I replied sitting up, " Just a stomach ache I guess"

At that moment the classroom door opened and Mr. Axon, our principal, walked into the room. Behind him followed a young man about my age in appearance. When I saw him I nearly dropped to the floor, without a doubt I knew he was Shadow. He didn't look like himself, but I knew.

" Students this is our new transfer student who'll be joining your class." Mr. Axon said looking professional.

" My name's, Solomon Kimble. I hope I'll be a welcome part of this school." He said uneasily his eyes showing distaste for his word choice.

" Well, hello Solomon. There's an open seat next to Mr. Digsby, why don't you sit there." Mr. Corbett said in his usual cheerful tone as he motioned in my direction.

" _Well, isn't that unexpected" _I thought looking around the class, taking note at the four other open seats in the class. I kept my eye on "Solomon" as he took the seat beside my own. " So, Solomon. Where are you from?" I asked giving him a questioning look.

" Cut the crap, I know that you know it's me. That name is the best I could come up with on short notice." Shadow whispered, " …You haven't noticed yet have you?"

" Noticed what?"

" Look out the window, and make sure your focused" shadow instructed.

I did as I was told and looked out the window, down at the small slope that led to the street. It took a few moments but as I focused more intensely I saw it. A small pack of hellhounds prowled around the school as if waiting for something.

" What the…Why are they here at the school." I whispered still looking out of the window.

"They're looking for you. When they'll strike, however, I don't know. But-"

" Mr. Kimble would you and Charles like me to wait until you finish your conversation before I teach my class." Mr. Corbett said causing shadow and myself to silence ourselves.

Thing went on relatively the same way for almost every class after that. Shadow and I would get a bit deeper into our conversation before a teacher would lose patience with our whispering and force us to be quiet. Why shadow complied I had no clue, I was the only one who had any real connection to the school.

We finally came to the last period of the day, P.E. I was glad because the whole day had gone by without one hellhound related incident. It just so happened that I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes for the day so, after our teacher took attendance shadow and I slipped into the locker room and continued our conversation.

" Explain to me again why these things are coming after me?" I asked, still having trouble believing what was going on.

" It's simple, what you did last night was real, and it means you're a measurable threat to the hellhounds creator. So, he's trying to get rid of you before you really learn to control whatever power you may have." Shadow explained forth the third time.

" You sure that wasn't a fluke, I mean how could I suddenly just have powers. Do you know how long I've wanted to have powers and nothing ever happened?" I asked turning to face a wall and slamming a fist against it.

" So what now you're angry that you're finally getting your wish?" Shadow asked confused.

" This isn't how-," I yelled as the blare of the fire alarm cut me off. Outside the locker I clearly sounds of screaming and yelling.

I glanced at shadow and we both ran out of the locker room into the gym. I was shocked at the site; a pack of ten hellhounds had busted in through the windows of the gym and were attacking my classmates. My guess was that someone had pulled the fire alarm to get people out of the school.

"Hey, Dark." Shadow called to me.

" Who the hell are you calling dark?" I replied raising an eyebrow. At some point between leaving the locker room and me turning around he had changed back to his usual tall black coat and black pants.

" Your friends used to call you darkness didn't they? I like dark, so that's what I'll call you. I'm pretty sure there are more of these guys outside; I'll make sure everyone's safe there. You take the one's in here."

" Wait a minute! " I called to him, but he was already gone.

I didn't have much time to think how I'd handle the situation; one of my classmates had apparently injured their leg running from a hellhound and was now looking it in the face. I ran toward the beast faster than I thought I'd ever move and tackled it away from my classmate just before it clawed her face off.

" Thanks." She said gratefully," but I can't stand up."

" _Damn it…" _I thought as the other hellhounds closed in. without warning I grabbed my classmate and threw her onto my back. The only thing I could think to do was run to the top of the bleachers in the gym and make my stand their. I set my classmate down in the farthest corner and placed my self between her and the hellhounds.

I glanced to my side and saw a lose bar in one of the railing sections and broke it free as a hellhound leapt up toward me. I swung the bar and smashed it's jaw, the force of the blow knocking it down the bleachers to the gym floor. Two more hellhounds leapt up at me, the first I hit in the chest with the bar leaving a sickening thud that hung in the air. The second pinned me landed on top of me and pinned me down, my classmate letting out a shriek of fear that only seemed to excite the beast. It immediately tried to crush my head between its jaws but I used the bar and kept its jaws a safe distance away from my face.

" _Aww, that's disgusting." _I thought as the beast drool dripped onto my face, quickly adjusting my hold on the bar. "Get… the hell …off me"

I grunted as I gave the bar a quick twist snapping the creature's neck, then kicked it off of myself. I slowly got up and looked around, the other six hellhounds had seemingly disappeared. Then a glob of drools hit my shoulder and I looked up, I cursed under my breath as I realized that the hellhounds could walk on walls. As one dropped drop from the ceiling I threw the bar at it as hard as I could.

The bar pieced right through the beast, severing its spine, and continued up and lodged itself in the ceiling. Then I was in for another surprise; all of a sudden the hellhounds transformed into a black mist and came together. Then the mist took the former of a two-headed mini Cerberus that was a little bit taller than me. The beast bounded from the ceiling to the wall nearest me then jumped again and clawed me across my chest, knocking me to the gym floor.

" _I'm going to kill shadow." _Fighting through the pain from my chest to stand.

Before I knew it the Cerberus was right in front of me and swatted me clear across the gym. I hit the wall hard and everything went black for a moment, when my vision returned I was under the paw of the Cerberus and it was staring down at me with killing intent. I glanced up at my classmate; she was scared out of her mind crying. I never did like seeing a woman cry, for any reason at all, and the nature of the situation set something off in me. I suddenly threw the Cerberus off of me with little to no effort, sending it flying across the gym. The beast quickly recovered and charged at me clawing wildly, I effortlessly avoided the beast's strikes and kicked it in the jaw stunning it. Then it suddenly felt like my hand was on fire, I glanced down to find my fist covered in dark energy. The beast recovered and once again lashed out at me, I ducked and the beast missed leaving it wide open for an attack.

" Get out of my school." I said angrily as I dealt a hard blow to the creature's stomach sending it flying through a wall.

I stood up and looked at the beast victoriously then every beast I'd defeated turned into black mist and began to surround me. The mist mad me gag and choke, robbing the air from my lungs. Everything started to spin as I felt myself fall over. The last thing I remember hearing was Shadow's voice, then everything went black.


	4. More than a story

**Shadow:so you finally decided to post another chapter, huh?**

**Dark: screw you shadow, you don't have to deal with real life. sorry about the long wait people, i kind of feel out of the writing habit for a while.**

**shadow: so do you think you've fallen back into the habit or will they have to wait another few months for the next chapters.**

**Dark: * glares at shadow* If i didn't like you so much I'd be beating the crap out of you...**

**Shadow: would never happen and you know it.**

**Dark: you know what i have a good idea to teach you to stop commenting on when i post my stories.**

**Shadow: other than you not typing what i say?**

**Dark:...you know i'm really going to do it now.* leaves***

**Shadow: this won't be good...  
**

* * *

More than a story

" _Ugh…What…" _ I thought hazily as I regained consciousness. I had no clue where I was but I was lying on abed looking up at the roof of a beige tent. Adding to my confusion, I could hear a number of indistinct voices, the sounds of steel colliding against steel, and pained groans from nearby. _"Where am I?"_

As I tried to sit up my body responded with an explosion of pain in my chest, I looked down and saw my chest tightly bandaged up. It was then I remembered my encounter with the Cerberus-like monster at my school. " Oh right…" I muttered to myself as I glanced around, although the tent was very large I was the only person in it.

My curiosity growing, I got to my feet and walked over to the flap of cloth that served as the door of the tent. I pushed it aside and stepped out, I was in the middle of what seemed to be a sea of tents arranged in a grid-like pattern with a large space dividing it into two halves.

" Hey, what are you doing out of your tent? You should be resting." An approaching voice pleaded. I turned to see a young woman in a nurse's top and a black skirt walking toward me, her skin was slightly tanned and she looked a bit shorter than I was. Her hair was light blue with a dark blue streak that started over her left eye, her left eye itself was light blue and the right was dark blue.

" Hey, is your name Rin?" I asked causing the girl to stop where she was

" How do you know my name?" she replied eyeing me curiously.

"I know a lot about some of the people here."

" Hm…well whatever you need to get back in that tent. Shadow doesn't want anyone to see you just yet." Rin said as she walked over and began shoving me back into the tent.

" He doesn't want anyone to see me? And why is that, besides there's no one around." I asked taking a seat on the bed.

" That's because I sent everyone to the training area on the far side of the camp." Shadow called out as he walked in out of nowhere, " Rin, please do me a favor and stand outside, and if any come they have to stay out."

" Right!" Rin exclaimed in surprise from shadows sudden order.

" So did you enjoy your little rest? You were out for more than a day." Shadow asked with a smile.

"What the f-… And does anyone have any clue why. And what happened at the school after I went out?" I blurted out in disbelief.

" Calm down… the thing is that up until a few months ago those stories you used to write about me, or anyone involved with me came true here." Shadow began as he reached into his coat and pulled out my story notebook and dropped it on the bed next to me. " But you created this new enemy I can't defeat and suddenly stopped writing, and as you know-"

" Every beginning has an end. The story came to life and when I stopped writing it kept on going here." I said grimly, then an idea jumped into my mind. " Wait a minute…"

I grabbed the book off of the bed and tried to open it, and as I did the words on the page bled together and the book turned to dust in my hand.

" I thought that would happen, your story…our lives aren't yours to control anymore. The only way to help us now is to fight." Shadow said flatly, but I could see the annoyance in his eyes. I suppose even he wanted an easy end to this problem.

I always knew I was terrible to the character I made when I wrote stories, but they were just characters to me then. Now I find out that they're real people, with real live and emotions. They could feel pain…and although I always brought them out on top now I couldn't. The reality that my writing was more than just a story hit me hard and all I could do was sit silently.

" So do you have any clue how we can beat this guy?" shadow asked turning his back to me.

" Hell I can't even remember the guys name. And you say I should fight but what makes you think I can. Sure I beat a couple of monsters, but you can't even beat this guy." I complained looking down at my hands.

" You had less trouble with those monsters than most of our best and most experienced soldiers when fully armed. And all you had was a piece of metal." Shadow pointed out putting a hand on my shoulder.

" Well…I did kind of give you crappy soldiers when I thought this whole thing up." I mumbled uneasily.

" You what?"

" I'm sorry but shadow doesn't want anyone to disturb him right now." Rin explained to someone outside distracting shadow before he could strike me.

" I told you to move, and it's not my style to hurt little girls." A familiar voice said in an annoyed tone.

" Who are you calling sma-" Rin started before letting out a sharp cry.

A man with long orange hair that hung over his flaming orange eyes wearing a white sleeveless shirt and jeans brushed aside the cloth door of the tent and stared at me. I immediately recognized him as Nova Solaris, a character I never really liked. All the same I had killed of his father and drove his sister somewhat insane, although truth be told it was hard to do.

" Nova…we really don't need to have you around right now." Shadow said giving him a hard look.


	5. trial by fire

***Dark comes back***

**Shadow: * looks at Dark suspiciously*what did you just do?**

**Dark: Nothing...**

**Shadow: Seriously man what did you do.**

**Dark: i told you nothing...I just gave vixen a call.**

**Shadow: What! * grabs dark by the shirt* What the hell did you tell her.**

**Dark: that i just may have seen you talking to another woman and that you seemed to be really enjoying yourself.**

**Shadow: you little bastard you know how she gets when she hears stuff like that.**

**Dark: That's the point, she'll be here real soon so you better hide.**

**Shadow: F--K!

* * *

  
**

Trial by Fire

" And don't you seem happy to see me." Nova said sarcastically as he made his way to the far side of the tent, " So is this the guy who's supposed to be the key to our victory in this little war. If you want the continued support of my people he had better be stronger than he looks."

" I'm sorry shadow he just tossed me aside." Rin apologized poking her head into the tent.

" Don't worry about it." Shadow said glancing in her direction before returning his focus to Nova, " Why does it matter to you how tough he is?"

" The Solarian race is a proud one, we won't rely on some punk." Nova said glancing toward me.

"That's why your dad died, idiot." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

In an instant nova was at my throat choking me as he threw me off the bed to the ground, sending a shockwave of pain through my body.

" What was that?" he asked in a strained tone.

"That pride… is the reason…your dad…and most of your race…are dead." I growled between strained breaths, then I grabbed his hand and pulled it off my neck, " Now get off me."

" Move it Nova." Shadow said as he pulled him off of me, allowing me to roll away and stand up.

" You better tell this punk to watch his mouth shadow." Nova warned glaring at me.

" I could beat you anytime, anywhere." I challenged cracking my knuckles.

" You think so? Fine let's go. Right here, right now." Nova replied with a smile.

" Hold on a second Nova-"

" No this is perfect Shadow; I need to test my strength against someone. Why not the prince of the Kingdom of Solaris himself." I said quickly before tackling Nova to the ground and running out of the tent.

" Little bastard." Nova grunted as he took off after me.

I didn't go far, I simply stood in the middle of the space that divided the two halves of the camp. But as nova stood across from me I felt my chances of winning drop, we were in the middle of a grassy field. And knowing Nova's proficiency with his fire based combat I was a bit unnerved. I felt the heat of the area rise and knew Nova was ready to go on the attack; he launched to fireballs at me from his hands and caught me right in my chest, the resulting explosion throwing me through the air. The fireballs burned right through my bandages leaving what felt like something between a first and second-degree burn on my chest.

I fought through the pain and jumped to my feet as quickly as possible, but was met with a right hook to the face. The blow stunned me a left me open for Nova to punch me right in the chest, launching me into a nearby tent. I hit the ground hard and convulsed a bit from the searing pain in my chest; even my eyesight failed me for a moment. Then a vaguely familiar voice rang out in my head, telling me to roll back. My eyesight was slowly returning but for the hell of it I did as I was told and rolled back.

I heard a loud thud where I had been and with my blurry vision I saw that Nova had barely missed an axe kick that, from the look of the small crater at his feet would have ended me.

" What happened to all your talk about beating me?" Nova asked mockingly.

" Well if your so confident let me get in a good punch and then we'll see how easily I can beat you." I replied confidently.

" Then hit me!" Nova yelled as he jumped at me.

I stepped forward and threw a punch, but just before it connected ova body transformed into flames and fell through him. Luckily it happened quickly enough that I didn't get burned too badly. I pounded my fist in the ground as Nova reformed his body behind me, laughing as he did so.

" Do you get it now, you can't hit me. What good are your attacks if they can't hurt me." Nova cackled with a look of superiority on his face.

" Aren't you forgetting something…" I said slyly as a grabbed a handful of dirt, " you have to concentrate to use that little trick."

I whirled around and threw the dirt into Nova face, him yelling in pain from the dirt in his eyes. I immediately ran up and hit him in the stomach, and then as he doubled over I grabbed his head and drove my knee into his forehead. Nova staggered back but didn't go down, I ran up again and went for a punch. To my shock Nova caught my fist, and squeezed it with all his might nearly crushing my bones.

" You dirty little cheat!" he roared as he delivered a bone-shattering uppercut to my jaw, rocketing me high into the air. He immediately transformed into flames again and began to form a flaming sphere around my body.

" _Crap…supernova." _I thought recognizing the attack from a story I'd written involving /nova.

" Nova don't do it!" I heard shadow call out from below, but it was too little too late.

Nova flames all crashed in on me in creating a massive explosion in the air. I feel to the ground, my entire body was one giant third degree burn. I was surprised I even had a body left when I made that move for Nova it as only supposed to leave bones and ashes. And still I feel to the ground, unable to move, speak or cry out.

" _I can't lose, not now! It's too damn soon. At least let me die at the hand of someone else!" _I screamed in my mind as my eyesight went dark yet again. _" Shit…if only I was just that much stronger maybe I could make this right…"_

" I've been waiting to hear that for years." The same voice that warned me of Nova's kick said to me.

" _Who the hell are you?"_

" Why don't you drop in and find out." The voice replied, and suddenly I felt myself falling again. Falling through darkness, to where I didn't know but something told me that things were about to get interesting.


	6. Awakening

**Shadow: Vix isn't here yet is she?**

**Dark: no, but i'll tell you what this story isn't really feeling complete, if you help me out then i'll call her and tell her it was all just a misunderstanding.**

**Shadow: I'll do it! just call her again.**

**Dark: I want it in writing**

**Shadow:.....is that really necessary?**

**Dark: no i guess not..OK I'll go call her * leaves***

**Shadow: oh thank god...**

**?: Oh Shadow?**

**Shadow: V-Vixen?**

**Dark: *Runs back in* Shadow she's already...Never mind

* * *

  
**

Awakening

I continued to fall thought the darkness unable to tell if my eyesight was still failing me or not. Then everything suddenly became bright and I found myself staring down at a vast ocean, still falling.

" _Holy crap." _I thoughtclawing aimlessly at the air. I rotted my body bit so I was lying flat on the air. "_I never thought I'd ever think that the power to fly was extremely useful. Damn was I wrong."_

I started yelling out random vulgarities as all hope of survival left my thought. Then something caught my arm and stopped my fall, pulling me onto a sandy floating island.

" What's wrong with you, can't you swim?" my rescuer asked as I got up and brushed myself off.

" Well I can a little but I don't think that's the point? Who are you anyway?" I replied turning to face my rescuer. He was nearly an exact double of shadow only his eyes carried a more distant look and his hair was longer. He had an aura around him that gave me the feeling that he just might kill me if I make one wrong move. " Kid? KidDark! But you and Shadow-"

" Are one in the same. Well for the most part that's true, but you're forgetting one thing. When you first dreamt me up I was the embodiment of your supposed indifference to everything going on in the world at that point. That made me a part of you as well." Kid explained walking toward the center of the small island.

" That's weird, but before I ask anything else where am I." I asked turning in a circle to take in my surroundings.

The space I was in was a strange one; there were hundreds of islands of many sizes floating about a mile above an ocean. The sky seemed to be stuck in an eternal sunset that gave way to sheer darkness at a higher altitude. Stranger still all the islands were moving seemingly of their own accord.

" Right, what's the easiest way to explain this." Kid mumbled tilting his head a bit.

" Wait a minute this isn't a bleach type thing is it?" I blurted out making the connection.

" Bleach?"

" It's an anime I watch about this soul reaper kid. When he needs to get stronger he winds up a weird place that like a representation of his world or some crap like that." I explained quickly.

" Well then yes it pretty much is; however this place is a space created by me. It represents the meeting of your mind and soul. The islands are your thoughts; constantly in motion and the ocean below is the part of you that hasn't changed much since you were a child." Kid explained walking to the edge of the island.

" _That thing about my thoughts was definitely true. I'm lucky if I can remember something longer than a goldfish half the time." _I thought jokingly.

" Now as for why you're here you have a job to do, but as it stands, considering you lost to Nova of all people. You're just not strong enough, I can help but I'm pretty much powerless to do anything when you're not completely exhausted."

" Exhausted! I'm about to die back there." I interrupted angrily, drawing and pissed glare from KidDark.

" Shadow wouldn't let that happen. Now as I was saying, when shadow became himself again what was lefty of me came to your body and I was surprised to find that you had a power of your own. But on it's own it's useless; luckily I retained some abilities when shadow took over. They're gravity based for the most part but they'll help you." Kid continued.

" Great, but what's this about me having my own power?" I asked, intrigued by the thought of have a power all my own.

" Honestly, you seem to have darkness abilities that perfectly fit your belief of what darkness is. Strength, control over darkness itself and something else I can only call a void." Kid said pointing down toward the sea.

" Void?" I said as I looked down into the sea and saw a black tear just sitting one the water, " what the…hell?"

" I said the same thing from what it looks like that thing could take in almost an infinite amount of energy and power. If my guess is right if you were to bring that out to defend against an enemy attack you would be able to do the same thing anytime you wanted." KidDark explained sounding fairly intrigued himself.

" So I basically have the power to steal people's abilities?" I said disappointed.

" Well if you put it like that it seems terrible, but as long as you don't abuse it your ability could be very valuable…which reminds me it also has a tendency to make you pass out if you stare at it too long." Kid added.

"Well that doesn't help me heal a body covered in third degree burns, with broken ribs and I think I broke my legs when I hit the ground a second ago." I pointed out.

" Just will it to happen and you'll heal. I've been poking around that void so much I'm sure it probably sucked out some of my old powers." Kid shot back waving an arm.

" …Fine, I believe you. I'm guessing you ma not be here the next time I show up." I asked folding my arms.

" I'm not sure, but I know you'll have to find me. And don't bother asking how to use the powers I'm giving you. You'll know, trust me."

" I do, thanks man it was great to finally meet you." I said with a smile as I extended my hand.

" Same here don't let me down." Kid said taking my hand and giving me a firm handshake. Then next things I knew my eyes were snapping open back on the ground, the sudden shock off the pain almost knocked e right back out. I remembered what KidDark said and screamed out in my mind for my body to heal. Then I noticed shadow yelling at Nova.

"What the hell are you doing, look at him we need him." Shadow yelled angrily.

" Him? What a joke, that kid is pathetic." Nova replied again using that superior tone again.

" _I'll show you pathetic!" _I thought annoyed.

A deep black aura erupted around my body, distorting the air around me. I felt my skin repairing itself, and as I had guessed, the bones in my legs came together again.

" What the hell?" Nova blurted out in shock.

" It looks like that "pathetic kid " is getting up after you best attack." Shadow said laughing.

I pushed myself of the ground and stood up straight. The aura faded and a gray t-shirt and black jeans had replaced my burned clothes. I looked myself over, opening and closing my hand, tensing my muscles and relaxing them.

" _I think that little burst of energy took of a little weight, that or it changed all my body fat to muscle either way." _I thought with a smirk glancing at Nova." Round two Hothead, let's go!"


	7. Dark Impact

**Vixen: *a slim sword appears in her hand and she points it at shadow* so what's this i hear about you seeing other women?**

**Shadow: Look vix i can explain***** takes a steps back***

**Vixen: i bet you can * prepares to swing the blade but dark grabs her arm***

**Dark: hey vixen, that little story i told you i just remembered it was Sophie i saw him with.**

**Vixen:...really**

**Shadow:Yes!!**

**Dark: yeah...sorry about that.**

**Vixen:* drops the sword* oh i'm sorry shadow* hugs him***

**Shadow:* mouths the words thank god***

* * *

Dark Impact 

" You want to get another beating, fine come and get it!" Nova growled, I could see a hint of fear in his eyes and laughed a little.

" Good, but let me get something first." I said glancing at shadow, " Shadow, do you still have that sword that could change into other weapons?"

" The shifter blade? I lost that thing years ago." Shadow replied cocking an eyebrow, " besides that thing stopped working for me after a while anyway."

" That's because it wasn't meant for you." I said raising an arm in the air and closed my eyes. I remained silent for a moment, I honestly wasn't sure my idea was going to work but I ran with it. I called out for the sword in my mind and waited.

" What the hell is he doing?" Nova asked impatiently.

" _It's coming." _I thought snapping open my eyes as a sword flew past Nova into my hand. " This sword was meant for me." I said happily twirling the sword by its hilt.

" Impressive." Shadow said applauding silently.

" Let's just get this over with already!" Nova yelled bursting into flames, rushing at me.

" Fine with me." I laughed throwing a punch with my free hand.

Nova scattered into flames and reformed a few yard behind me a launched a huge fireball at me. A small smirk tugged at my lips as I ran right into the attack, calling on the gravitational power KidDark had granted me, I released a gravitational wave the dispersed the fireball. The wave continued on and pushed nova back, his feet digging into the ground.

Nova staggered back and as he looked up I connected with a punch to the face. He fell to the ground and I, like a fool, stood over him. Nova simply blasted me into the air with a torrent of flame, and sprung back to his feet following by launching another giant fireball at me.

" _Why do I keep ending up in the air when I can't fly!" _I thought as a the fireball neared me_, " Luck don't fail me now."_

Thinking quickly I held the shifter blade in front of me and it transformed into a large shield. The fireball exploded against the shield, the force of the blast knock higher into the air. Back on the ground Nova jumped into the air and headed right for me, twirling my sword again it transformed into short scythe with a weighted chain attached to it. I swung the weight over my head and threw it toward Nova, hitting him in the face. Then I jerked the chain to the side wrapping it around his neck.

" _Wait a minute…I can't fly and yet I'm still in the air? Oh right, gravity-based powers." _I thought as nova grabbed at the chain around his neck and began melting_, " Note to self: ignore random thoughts when setting up an opponent."_

I looped the chain around my hand and held it tight as I began to spin around as fast as I could in the air. I couldn't faintly make out nova's expression as he continued to melt thought the chain, his eye bloodshot and rolling back into his head. Then the chain snapped and nova fell toward the round at a blinding speed, heading right for the camp's training grounds. Slightly disappointed I reverted my sword back to it's original state only to find it broken, missing a fourth of the blade.

" You son of a- I didn't think the blade would break if the chain did." I mumbled to myself as I examined the blade.

Even from where I floated in the air I could hear the scream of the warriors as nova crashed to the ground. Angling myself toward the training ground I propelled myself down with a powerful gravitational wave, flipping just before I landed to land on my feet..

I stumbled forward a bit as I touched down on the training ground field, all the warriors stared at me awkwardly as I approached the small crater created by Nova's impact. I could here whispers coming from the large crowd that was beginning to amass on the side of the field; I rolled my eyes at how similar people here were to people back on Earth. As I approached Nova pushed himself to his feet slowly, spitting a glob of blood into the dirt as he did.

I stopped a few feet away from him and waited for him to step out of the crater. Once out he pulled what remained of the chain on his neck off and threw it at me, rage clear in his eyes.

" So I take it you're not pleased with how things are turning out." I said catching the chain and pressing it against my sword, allowing it to reform in its proper place.

Nova let out an enraged cry as he ran at me flames billowing from his body. I spun around transformed my sword into a heavy hammer and dealt him a hard blow to the chest, causing him to fall over on my weapon and cough up blood. I lowered the hammer to the ground and gently pushed nova to the ground and began to walk away, the crowd murmuring loudly as I did.

" Look he's getting up." A female warrior cried behind me.

"Damn it Nova, you need to learn when you're beat." I thought as I dropped the hammer and turned around.

Nova was already in his full flame form, I couldn't tell if he was still fully conscious or what emotions were running through his head. With a sigh I remembered the feeling from my encounter with the Cerberus and summoned the dark energy to my fist, shrouding it in a fierce dark aura. Nova ran toward me again and I did the same.

" You now an attack really aren't at its strongest until you name it." KidDark's voice chimed in my head.

"_Somehow I really doubt that, but I named all my other creations so…" _I thought as nova and I neared each other.

Nova threw a punch and I ducked under it only to be burned by a wave of flame, forcing me to shut my eyes. But from the heat of nova's flames I visualized my target and went on with my attack.

"Dark impact!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as punched into Nova's flames. My eyes snapped open as I felt my fist connect with something solid, and I watched as nova flew back through the air. His flames dissipated and his body fell limp into an unoccupied tent.

The training grounds fell silent as I stood upright wide-eyed at what I just done. Then all of a sudden shadow pushed his way through the crowd and stood beside me. he said something to me but in my shock I heard nothing.

" _Did I just throw a punch at a guy made of fire…and hit him?" _ I thought as shadow shook me out of my daze.

" Need a last name, now! And not your real one." He whispered to me harshly.

" Uh what…Umm, I don't know Oblivion." I said still confused.

" Everyone, our newest ally. Dark Oblivion!" Shadow shouted to the crowd and without delay the entire crowd began cheering and shouting.

" I've never seen anyone but Shadow himself beat Nova!" I barely made out as one man shouted.

" What the hell?"

" Just consider it a welcoming party." Shadow whispered to me as the crowd moved in and numerous people began talking to me at once.

For hours random soldiers and nurses introduced themselves and showed me around the camp. But it was the few people I didn't talk to that interested me. by the end of the day I was worn out from all the attention I received. Shadow sent Rin to take me back to my own tent. Then a few minutes later he came by himself.

" So how are you holding up?" he asked as he stepped into my tent.

" I'm good…" I said lying on a cot, a sever downgrade from the bed I had while injured but I didn't complain, " send me home."

" Still worried about the aftermath of that attack huh?" Shadow said with an insightful nod.

" Yup." I replied with a grunt as I rolled out of the cot.

" Well I can send you back, but the time in our universes isn't exactly in phase so I can't say when you'd be arriving home." Shadows explained rubbing his chin.

"Wait I'm in another universe." I asked giving Shadow a curious look while he just stared, " Yeah nothing else does make sense does it."

" Well then…" Shadow began, as a white orb appeared in the palm of his hand. " Don't blink."

The orb exploded in a flash of light, blinding me for a moment. When my sight returned I was standing in my room. I glanced around in surprise then turned my attention to my clock.

" _It's only four o'clock on the same day I left? Wow, our universes really are out of phase."_ I thought scratching my head, "_well it was Friday when I left, I think, and the best place to find someone you know on a Friday is at the mall."_

I checked my picket to see that the dagger I had the shifter blade turn into was still there, and looked myself over to make sure I didn't have any surprise injuries to explain. When I was sure that there was nothing off about me I quietly snuck out of the house and headed for the mall.


	8. A Decision

New Motivation

I only lived about a ten-minute walk up the street from the mall, so I took me little to no time to arrive at the mall. It felt strange to me being back in such a normal world after nearly being killed and Fighting and beating Nova. Normally I would walk around with a sense of paranoia that something was going to happen, but now it felt like I could sense people's lack of interest at my presence.

I stood outside of the mall for a moment, looking around suspiciously. I knew that someone wanted me dead and didn't care where I was when he attacked. I was determined that if I saw anything out of the ordinary, I'd get as far away from populated areas as possible.

" _It looks like I'm safe for now."_ I thought as I turned to enter the mall.

I came in through the mall's food court entrance on the second floor, the soft roar of conflicting sounds filling the air as I made my way downstairs. I made my usual first stop in FYE, hanging around the anime DVD section.

" _I'm always in here yet I never buy anything. If I were one of the staff I'd kick myself out." _I thought as I picked up a DVD and read the case_._

" Yo, Charles!" a familiar voice called out. I glanced up to see my friend Christian walking up to me.

" Perfect I was looking for someone from school to talk to." I said putting the DVD back, " What's good Dude?"

" Dude, the schools been shut down until further notice. Those mutant dogs fucked the place up."

" Damn, so did anyone get hurt too bad?" I asked rubbing the side of my neck.

" Nah but yo, what happened to you? I snuck back to the school during the evacuation and saw you fighting that big ass dog. Then that mist crap came out of nowhere and some dude grabbed you and disappeared." Christian explained leaving me a wide-eyed with surprise.

" You saw that?" I whispered leaning in a bit.

" Yeah, I even breathed in a little of that mist. But that shit was crazy. You took that thing out with one punch, it kicked your ass a little first but…" Christian replied, falling silent as I glared at him. " Seriously though what happened?"

" I'm not going to talk about it in here. Come on." I ordered leading him out of the store.

I was silent for a few minutes as I lead Christian around the mall, trying to figure out the simplest lie that he'd believe.

" So are you going to tell me or what?" Christian spoke up impatiently.

" _Well my mother always did say tell the truth and shame the devil…" _I thought before giving the best summary of recent events.

" Wait so that guy was Shadow…from your stories and Natura, the planet you made up, is real." Christian said staring at me skeptically, " Bullshit dude."

" Whatever, I told you what you wanted to know. It's your choice whether or not you believe it." I said as we passed another entrance. I felt a sudden chill as we did and I looked out through the entrance doors.

A huge mass of black mist was headed toward the mall, at an alarming speed. Then the mall lost power, adding to my distress.

" Ha, ha black out at the mall hilarious." Christian laughed as I grabbed him by the shoulder.

" Christian leave. Now! Get home as fast as you can." I ordered him as I pointed toward the black mist.

" Holy crap, again?"

" Now Go!" I yelled shoving him back the way we came.

I turned my back to Christian as he ran toward the food court of the mall, my eyes darting from place to place waiting for something to pop up.

" Charles!" Christian cried behind me. I spun around just as a bladelike bony spike plunged through Christian's body.

I looked on in shock as the spike slid out of his body. Time seemed to slow as he fell to the ground, revealing his killer. It was skinny creature with two of those spikes in place of its forearms; it had no lower jaw and its tongue hung down onto its chest. It's eye white as though it were blind and it stood on two thin legs, over which it wore tattered pants. Several more of these creatures appeared as the mist penetrated into the mall. They were all over terrorizing and killing anyone unlucky enough not to get away.

I could fell my rage swelling up inside me, any and all sense of restraint left my mind as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the dagger. As it left my pocket it immediately transformed into a scythe, and I charged toward my friend's killer. The creature tilted its head slightly and gurgled as I leapt toward it, swinging the scythe wide. Just before I lopped its head off the creature disappeared, I hit the ground and spun around. The creature reappeared above me with its arms extended for a strike; I jump out of the way letting the creature stab the ground. Another creature appeared behind me and grazed my side as it rolled out of the way of its strike, spinning around I slashed through nothing but air.

" _That's getting really annoying!" _I thought as the creature reappeared on top of a table. I glanced back and noticed the other creature had disappeared as well. _" The scythe won't be fast enough if these guys keep warping around the place."_

More of the creature teleported around me as I reverted the shifter blade back to its normal form, thinking quickly I formulated a plan that would hopefully even the odds of my situation. One of the creatures jumped toward me and I put my plan into action. I stabbed my blade through the creature stomach, causing it to let out a sickening gurgling sound as I jump over the rail down to the first floor of the mall. I pinned the little monster down and quickly tapped into the energy stealing powers of the void inside me. I grabbed the creature's skull and it let out another gurgling cry as I swiftly drained the energy from its body.

" Thanks." I said as I stood up and noticed the large amount of blood on one of the creatures arm and recognized it as Christian's killer. " You killed my friends and now your power's going to help me kill yours."

No sooner than the words had left my mouth two more creatures appear above me. I looked up at them with a smile as I teleported above them and slashed their bodies in half, then teleported back into the food court. There even more of the creatures came after me, five of them surrounding me in a circle. I glanced from side to side as I waited for them to make a move, tightening my right hand on the hilt of my sword.

A creature came at me from the left and I deflected it's strike and threw it into another behind me, skewering them both on the others spikes. As I turned my back the creature that was in front of me leapt forward, I rolled to my right, the creatures spike cutting into my cheek, and slashed its legs at the knee.

I smiled in satisfaction as the two remaining creatures teleported away. I stood up and looked down at the crippled creature at my feet, struggling to use its spikes to push itself up. I turned my blade into a heavy axe then brought it down over the creature's neck, feeling a hint of pity for it as well to satisfy my rage.

The food court was clear, and as far as I'd seen the same area of the first floor was as well. I ran toward the far end of the mall only to find a large number of the creatures already slain. I came around the corner and heard a few gunshots; instinctively I called upon the power of the void, turning my arm black as I raised it to block. Three bullets embedded themselves in my arm drawing no blood but still causing me a fair deal of pain.

" Ah, what the hell?" I cried holding my arm as the bullets disappeared into the void,

" _How the hell does metal count as energy?"_

" Sorry about that, thought you were on of those jump soldiers." a voice called to my left. A man about my height wear a long white leather trench coat and a reflective white mask with two black stripes just about where his eyes would be. He had two pistols in his hand and an assault rifle strapped to his back.

" Shadow sent me here just in case there was another attack on you in your world." He said walking up to me, " it looks like it's a good thing he did. The name's Special Agent Valor. You are Dark Oblivion."

" Yeah I am, so you took all these guys out yourself? Are these they the jump soldiers you mentioned? And how come I never even heard a shot go off until you shot me." I complimented awkwardly rubbing my arm.

" Well when you're in my line of work it pays to be good at silent kills. And yeah, that's what shadow named them." He explained out placing the pistols in holsters at his waist.

Suddenly a huge creature appeared behind Agent Valor. It wore a helmet and armor on its arms, the left of which was a large blade and the right resembled a large gun barrel. Its body resembled a jump soldier only slightly more muscled and in place of legs it had a blue cloud of smoke that seemed to emanate from its waist. Even then it was at least two feet taller than me.

The new creature knocked Valor through a nearby wall with the side of its blade, and then swung at me. I teleported to the opposite side of the mall and the creature did the same knocking me into a wall with it's gun arm.

" _Son of a bitch!" _I hissed in my mind as I hit the wall and fell on my face.

I pushed myself to my knees and saw the gleam off of the creature's blade on the ground near my head. My eyes widened and I rolled underneath the creature as it slammed its blade arm into the ground where my head had been. It easily jerked the blade loose then turned to me again, already on my feet I charged at the monster. I jumped onto its blade arm as it swung for my feet, jumping again and punching it in the face.

As best as I could tell with its lack of legs the monster staggered back from the blow. I teleported a few feet in front of it and the creature aimed it's gun arm at me and fired a beam of blue and black energy. I hadn't expected the creature to recover so quickly and its attack blasted me through several stores.

" I can't lose not after these things killed my friend." I growled to myselfas I stood up from under the rubble in a clothing store.

The creature floated into the first hole it made when it shot me and charged up another. I called on the power of the void again turning my left arm pitch black. The creature fired again and I extended my left hand to absorb the attack, I could fell the energy build as I took it in but I quickly found myself immobile. I the creature didn't let up and seemed to turn up the amount of energy it was putting into its attack. I began to focus the energy I was taking in to my right hand but was still unable to aim at the creature, then I heard the sound of automatic gunfire and the creature let out a roar and broke away from it's attack.

"_Agent Valor." _I thought as I aim my right hand at the creature, " Hex cannon."

A powerful beam of red energy exploded from my palm and enveloped the creature; it's power almost knocking me back. The creature let out an a deep roar as my attack turned it to ashes, cutting the flow of energy to my hand a feel to a knee slightly drain from the sudden expulsion of so much energy. I shook it off and ran to where the creature stood, Agent Valor meeting me.

" Shadow was right about you, you're an impressive fighter." He said resting a hand on my shoulder, " Glad to have you on our side."

" Thanks…" I said half-heartedly taking a look around the mall. It was nowhere near as bad as t could have been, but never the less the mall was destroyed. " Hold on a second Valor."

I teleported myself back to where the jump soldier had killed Christian and was shocked to find his body missing. There was no sign that anyone had moved his body, the pool of blood had no marks in it at all. But strangely instead of feeling more rage or sadness I felt almost happy. Something deep inside told me that things were much better than they appeared.

"_I'll see him again." _I thought teleporting back over to Valor, " Sorry…so I take it that you have a way to get back to Natura correct?"

" Of course, we have smart people on our side. They're good with this kind of stuff." Valor explained holding up a small electronic device.

" Good, let's go. I won't be coming back home anytime soon. Nit until I'm sure that this won't happen again." I said taking one last look around the mall.

"Right." Valor said pointing the device toward a wall and flipping a small switch on it. Then a door sized vortex open up on the wall and he stepped in, with more following hesitantly.

When I returned to the camp I found shadow and told me what happened. It was late and he told me that it'd be best for me to take a rest. So I returned to my tent and was surprised to find that my little cot had been replace with a large bed. I tossed off my shirt and lay down staring up at the roof of the tent, I grabbed my sword for a moment a transformed it into a much wider weapon so as to examine my reflection. My once brown eyes had become pitch black but m facial expression seemed more relaxed and happy than it had been for a long time.

" Charles Digsby Jr. is dead." I thought dropping my blade and closing my eyes, wondering what new adventure the next day would bring.

* * *

_*** plaease note that the next chapter will contain a somewhat adult oriented situation. No not any actual sexual intercourse, but i'll be getting very close som any one who may find that offensive or that is too young for that stuff you have been warned. Skip that part of the chapter.*  
**_


	9. Surprise, Surprise

Surprise, Surprise

No sooner than I had fallen asleep, I found myself lying on one of the islands that floated in my inner world. I sat up confused, and annoyed, as things like this regularly happened in my stories. I stood up and brushed myself off as I glanced around.

" We need to talk." KidDark said, startling me.

" Damn it, did you have to just pop up like that?" I asked turning around.

" Not really but, I had to get your attention. And who the hell ignore something that just scared the crap out of them." Kid pointed out taking a seat under on of the palm trees that was on the island.

"What do you want then." I asked impatiently staring at him.

" Well I just thought you should know, while I maybe a remnant of myself trapped within you. I'm still connected to Shadow somewhat. And I've been siphoning information from his memories and thought you should know more about the guy your fighting." Kid explained picking up a handful of sand and letting it runs through his fingers, " but mostly I thought you should know a few people who've died."

" Death's first." I said turning my back.

" Right. As you know Aya has already been killed. The other deaths I thought you should know are Sosonoskei, Desertrose, and Jura."

"Jura was killed! How?" I yelled spinning around.

" The enemy went after him personally. In the end he tired out and was killed, age was finally getting to the old dragon." Kid said gloomily.

" _Crap…" _I thought Jura was one of the oldest dragons I'd ever thought up, and a strong one at that. Easily twice the age of most other dragons around he was fit enough too beat any of them. Not even Shadow would want to fight him outright.

" As for the enemy himself, Shadow's met him at least once before. He's roughly your height but that all shadow knows about him physically. He keeps himself shrouded in that mist of his at all times. He kept babbling about turning Shadow's dream into a nightmare or something like that." Kid continued pausing for a moment as he stood up," As far as his abilities go he seems to be able to turn his mist into different creatures as he pleases, and he can also you the mist itself as a physical weapon."

"Turn shadow's dream into a nightmare..." I thought recognizing the words, "That's it!"

"What?" Kid asked giving me a weird look.

" I remember who this guy is now. He's Dreamcaster's Brother and His name is Nightmare." I replied as I remembered why I created the character.

" Good, you should tell Shadow anything else you remember when you wake up… Which should be any time now as a matter of fact." Kid said with a pleased smirk.

" Wait what" I said as everything began to fade away.

I awoke with a groan as I returned to the real world, well as real as Natura could be. I opened my eyes slowly and stared up at a blurry tent.

" _Ugh. I don't care what powers I get, I'll still be human enough to hate waking up in the morning."_ I thought closing my eyes again as I sat up and my face pressed up against something soft yet firm. _" What the hell…"_

The first thing that came to my mind was move, but instead I listened to the voice of curiosity in my mind and felt around first. I brought my hand up above my face and placed them down, I felt shoulders. It was then my curiosity changed to nervousness, as I let my hands slide down and touched a pair of breasts.

" Holy shit!" I thought as I realized there had been something resting on my waist since before I'd awaken. I snapped my eyes open arm pulled away to see a young, naked Cat-girl sting on top of me.

"Did you like them?" she said tilting her head a bit, smiling.

" Kurin, why the hell are you sitting on top of me naked in my tent!" I yelled as trying to push her off of me, but she grabbed my arm and pushed me down.

She held me there for a moment with the same smile on her face, and then slid farther up my body so I couldn't get up without throwing her off.

" Well Shadow told Rin to tell me to come here and see if you need cheering up… she told me what happened to your friend, and I gladly accepted the job. Then I thought what's the best way to cheer up a man… and here I am." She explained excitedly, her tail quivering.

" Well…thanks for the offer but I don't need the cheering up, now let me get up." I said turning my head trying not to stare.

" You think I'm ugly don't you." She whimpered suddenly on the verge of tears.

"_In all honesty your probably the hottest woman on this planet and any man who say otherwise should be shot…but saying that won't help my situation." _I thought glancing away. " No it's not that it's just that…well I'm a virgin and this is not how I want my first time to go down."

" You're lying…"

" What kind of guy lies about something like that!" I yelled desperately.

" But if that true then that's all the more reason you should just let loose and do it." She suggested suddenly happy again.

" Oh Fuck this!" I said angrily as I released a gravitation burst just strong enough to throw her off of me. _" My morals prevent me from hitting a woman for no good reason.. But I didn't exactly hit just now…so I still have what's left of my integrity_." I thought as I jumped off of the bed, grabbed my shirt and ran.

I ran as fast as I could away from my tent and hid, catching my breath. I checked around to make sure Kurin hadn't followed me then a made my way to Shadow's tent. As I arrived a few soldiers were leaving the tent, leaving shadow and myself there alone.

" So you're up sleep-" he began before I punched him in the face knocking him onto a table in his tent.

" What's the big idea sending Kurin to my tent to try and seduce me you bastard." I yelled furiously.

" Ah, what?" shadow replied as he checked if his lip was bleeding.

" I just ran out of my tent to get away from a crazy neko chick that wanted to have sex with me, that's what."

"Oh- damn it. Rin must have misheard me earlier. I told her to tell Karin to go check on you. She's has the ability to manipulate emotions, I wanted her to see how you were feeling and try to help out if you weren't doing to good." Shadow explained in a slightly annoyed tone. " Kurin herself isn't supposed to leave her tent until we find something to calm her down while she's…needy."

" Needy what the fu…is she in heat or something?" I asked trying my best to link things together.

" I see that as a rather blunt way of saying it but I think it's something like that." Shadow said flatly, " I've heard she can go to great lengths to sleep with a guy when she's like this."

" _She's not like that because of me is she?"_ I thought uneasily." Oh yeah, I remembered who this guy is. He's Dreamcaster's brother, Nightmare."

" You mean the guy who set to up so I…or I guess we could create Natura?" Shadow asked his eyes widening a bit.

" Yeah, that why your having such a hard time with him. They're exactly the same except his brother destroy whatever his brother helped to create." I explained quickly.

" Then you really are going to be in taking him down, I had to blow myself up on top of Dreamcaster when he thought Natura was getting out of hand. And I tried that on his brother and he got up like it was nothing." Shadow said grimly as a soldier rushed into the tent.

" Shadow, dark. We've just gotten word that there's a huge enemy force heading toward crystal city!" the soldier blurted out.

" Dark get ready we're leaving ASAP." Shadow ordered and I gave a slight nod before leaving his tent.

I ran back to my tent as fast as I could, my mind already set for battle. As I approached my tent I saw Kurin and slowed down, she looked fairly disappointed. I couldn't feel bad considering the position she put me in, or wanted to put me in, but that's something I made sure I kept my mind away from. As I got closer I tried not to make eye contact and stepped into my tent, but my sword was nowhere to be found. I turned around and Kurin's arm was in the tent's doorway holding my sword.

" Uh, thanks…" I said uneasily as I took it from her.

" I'm sorry about earlier, someone came by and gave me the elixir that helps me control myself right after you left." She said folding her arms tightly and turning away, " I feel terrible for what I did."

" So then we both feel terrible. I shouldn't have done what I did. I mean you couldn't control yourself right. Besides I'm probably the only guy who tried so hard to get way from you." I said with a smile as a placed a hand on her shoulder. " Cheer up, I know you're not the type to stay depressed like this."

Her ears twitched a bit as I spoke but she still looked pretty down. I thought for a moment and looked down at her tail, then without warning I gave it a quick pull. Kurin let out a sharp yowl then whipped around and rake her nails across my chest.

"What did you do that for!" She yelled angrily.

" Well I thought that if I couldn't cheer you up I'd piss you off. I can't leave a lady all sad and such if I felt like I had something to do with it, but angry women that I can walk away from guilt free." I explained rubbing the cuts from her nails. " man kitty has claws no doesn't she?"

Kurin stuck her tongue out and giggled at my little joke, and with that I began to walk away.

" Hey Kurin?" I said stopping for a moment.

" What."

" If it makes you feel better I definitely would have accepted your offer." I continued glancing back.

" Pervert." Kurin said jokingly, looking away as she blushed.

" You know it!" I said back turning to walk again.

I made my way back to shadows tent where some redirected me to the training grounds. There I met shadow and a large group of fighters, most of whom I met after I beat Nova.

I noticed a few that I hadn't met that I recognized as some of my story characters. I was just about to walk up to them when Shadow called for everyone's attention.

" All right everyone, we're headed for the crystal city at the edge of the desert. The enemy is on its way there and we need to make sure that they don't get through. Dark, come here." Shadow began, calling me in front of everyone. " This is our new second in command under me, he hasn't been on the battlefield with so many other yet, and he may need a little help at first but with his skill and strength he more than makes up for it. That said, try to stay out of his way in battle."

" Well I'm ready to go kick some ass. We won't let these things beat us right?" I asked confidently, the roar of the soldier's cheers in my ears.

" Well said, now let's go!" shadow said as a white orb appeared in the palm of his hand and exploded teleporting the entire group.

We arrived just outside of a city nestle between two mountainous boulders, behind it a vast desert where only the hardiest of creatures could survive. The city itself was much more appealing, all around it grew crystals and gems of every color and size. As we entered the city the locals cheered and a local soldier came to meet shadow and me. He led us up to a tall tower and asked us to climb to the top and meet his commander. Shadow and I made our way up the tower and I was surprised to find that the commander was a young woman named Espirina. A character I had written to be an apprentice of desert rose.

"Shadow. Long time no see," Espirina said happily, hugging shadow as he came to the top of the stairs, " Who's you're friend."

" This is Dark, he's new but he's strong. I've made him my second in command back at my camp." Shadow explained stepping aside so I could enter the lookout post.

" Great the more strong fighters the better, we're really going to need him. Look." Espirina said motioning to a telescope aimed out into the distance.

Shadow took a moment to look then moved aside and motioned for me to do the same. Through the telescope I saw a huge line or enemies approaching, jumps soldiers and some other creature's that looked similar to them, as well as a few of the creatures that attack agent Valor and me back in my world. I noticed something odd in the middle of the enemy army, something that looked almost human.

" Hey shadow, Espirina. I think I see…" I said as I began to recognize the figure, "Desertrose!"

"What!" Espirina exclaimed as she pushed me away from the telescope and looked for herself. " It is him, but he looks…different?"

Shadow and I looked at each other for a moment and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

"_This can't be good…"_ I thought looking out over the grassland, the only thing separating us from this enemy.


	10. the friends you'll make

Dark: *walks up to shadow* so vixen still here?

Shadow: surprisingly no...wait this isn't the conversation you were originally going to have

Dark: this one is less perverted and doesn't bring Sophie into play deal with it.

shadow: all right then...so not title this time around

Dark: couldn't think of anything good so the readers get to name it. best chapter title wins

shadow: ties will require a fight to the death

Dark: if only that would work. anyway enjoy the chapter reader.

Shadow: hey shout out to your buddy remember.

Dark: oh yeah, if you readers remember i mentioned my friend christian in the story, well with my approval he is now writing his own story following what happens to him in mine. his pen name is Riuna, please check it out it would mean a lot to him.

Shadow: if you don't well send a few jump soldiers to come and take care of you

Dark: why the threat? Seriously.

Shadow: hey Sometimes fear works better than kindness...

Dark: oh yeah and sorry for cutting the bit with shou so early, but in all honesty that was how it ended, there was just a lot more stalemate combat in the middle.

Shadow: hey you're the writer you don't have to explain yourself

Dark: hey i like my readers, though i wish i'd get more reviews because i know there are some silent people out there

Shadow: threaten to quit writing...

Dark: what! no that didn't work the last time i tried, plus remember that pm

Shadow...oh yeah never mind then.

Dark: crap, sorry for drawing this out people, please enjoy the chapter

* * *

Dark: Update people Black Cyrus has come up with a suitable chapter title.

Shadow: thanks man we appreciate it

* * *

The Friends You'll Make

" Espirina, you realize that this does mean he may be with the enemy now? Until we know otherwise we'll have to act as such." Shadow had said to Espirina before we left the lookout tower.

He had estimated that it would roughly be three days before the enemy force would reach the city. He advised me to go out and find something to keep myself busy, but I was having a hard time finding something that held my interest. I decided to take a walk through the city top make up my mind.

" _What to do, what to do?" _I thought as I passed by a weapons shop.

I glanced inside and saw one of the soldiers I had yet to meet from Shadow's camp. I identified him as Shou Kira, a blacksmith and sword master. Intrigued I took out my shifter blade and looked it over, it was still usable but it had several chips in it missing from past use.

" _Shadow never did take care of you did he?" _I thought feeling sympathy for the blade. _" I feeling compassion for an item of bloodshed…weird. I think I'll have Shou work on it, it needs to be strengthened."_

As I stepped into the weapons shop I realized that Shou was having an argument with the owner of a shop. As the door slammed shut behind me they both looked my way then returned to their argument.

" You're a fool man! What idiot would believe in the soul of a hunk of metal." The shop owner said, surprising me with his Irish accent.

" And I'm telling you that every weapons has it's own spirit old man? You just need the right tools and a good ear to find it and listen to it." Shou shot back slamming his hand on the counter. He was a bit shorter than me, but Shou was no pushover his upper body was muscular and honed from training and the swinging of heavy hammers while working metal. His eyes held a deep sense of right and wrong, and his brown hair was messy at best. Overall he seemed to emanate an inner strength that would make the weak of heart crumble in his presence.

" Don't be a fool, believing that crap. A weapon is a tool of war, nothing else." The shop owner said turning away to polish a sword.

" Why you old…" Shou began raising his fist.

" What makes you so sure a weapon can't have a soul. Consider what strange things have happened here, the abilities people have. How do you know there isn't a man out there who can breathe life into a blade?" I spoke up grabbing Shou's fist and lowering it.

"Not another one, you can't really believe this one." The sshop owner said placing the sword down.

" I'm not saying I agree, I'm just saying you can't say he is wrong based on your beliefs. On this planet there are many people who have many great abilities. Who's to say some magician didn't say create a mystic hammer that could give a mind, a personality to a weapon." I said calmly eyeing the man hard.

Shou stared at me for a moment, in amazement. I knew it was because my example was more or less the experience he'd had in the story I'd written for him. The shop owner was silent for a moment then turned to face me.

" Aye, I guess you're right. This planet is a strange one, living weapons wouldn't be anything new." He said defeated, " Now are either of you planning to buy anything? If you're not I'll have to ask you to leave, my shops not too big and a crowded weapon shop in a dangerous place."

Shou and I looked at each other then turned to leave, outside Shou turned to me again and gave me a curious look.

" Why did you do that, backing me up in there?" he asked.

" Well I knew that you were right, but sometimes to get a person to believe you it's necessary to stay calm and not get worked up like you did. Besides I like your swords just as much as you do, all six of them." I replied looking away.

" How do you- oh right shadow must have told you."

"No not really, let's just say I nothing things about people. Which reminds me will you do me a favor, I want you to strengthen the blade of my sword." I said glancing up, " And use the good hammer if you have it."

" You're a strange one, but I think we'll get along just fine." Shou said taking the sword from me, " It should only be a few hours so you should find something to keep yourself occupied."

" _Great that again…but I was expecting that." _I thought as he walked away. With a deep sigh I spun around and went on my way, looking for anything that seemed remotely interesting.

I wandered around the city aimlessly for a few minutes, until I found a small, secluded shop that sat near the edge of the city toward the desert. I stepped inside to find shelves filled with crystalline figurines and statues, each one seemed like it would have taken years to make. I carefully made my way around the shop admiring the obvious skill of the artist who carved the crystals and gems into such intricate designs.

" Oh hello, do you like them." I feminine voice spoke up behind me.

" Oh I'm sorry I was just wandering around the city and I saw that the door was open and just came in." I explained turning around. She was a woman of a kind, gentle appearance, she had dark skin, light hair and her eyes were bright green. She looked happy but I could feel it was just a facade; there was something hollow about her apparent cheeriness.

" Oh, it's all right. Take your time and enjoy yourself." She replied with a small smile.

" You don't have to put on an act for me, or anyone else for that matter." I said not looking directly at her, " Your name is Sophita right, D.R's girlfriend?"

" How do you know that, Are you a friend of DesertRose?" she said clutching her hands over her heart and taking a step back.

" You might be able to say that…" I said turning around again, " I'm sorry to hear that he was killed, it must be hard on you."

" I…he." Sophia muttered looking at the ground before bursting into tears, " He proposed to me just before it happened…I said yes but then he…"

" _Damn…how could not writing a story cause so much pain for the characters I cared about like real friends_." I thought restraining myself from slamming my fist on the shelves. " I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. But he was a great guy and at least you got to know how he felt before it happened."

Sophita could only nod in agreement through her sobs. I felt terrible for making remember something like that, the pain of losing the man she loved just as they were planning to be married. I couldn't leave; I had to figure out some way of making her feel better or else I'd feel terrible for the rest of my life.

" I know it's, no, I can't imagine how hard it is for you right now. But you'll have to get over it if you want to live a full life. Isn't that what he'd want for you." I suggested to her hoping for some response. " He did live a dangerous life, and he must have seen this as a possibility once the war came along. That's probably why he waited until now to let you know how much he cared about you."

Sophita's sobbing lightened as I spoke to the point where she was merely sniffling. She wiped her eyes and a weak smile appeared on her face, weak but I knew there was real happiness behind it.

" That sounds like something he'd do. He never was one to be to open about his feelings." She said with a slight laugh.

" But beneath his rough sandy exterior was a man who knew what he wanted, and of all the choices he may have had he chose you. And I'd say he chose well, not many men actually find a woman that takes their death so hard." I pointed out.

"Thank you…you seem to know him very well." She said starting to cry a little more.

" I only know about his personality, but I'd love to hear about him from the lady who knew him best." I said hoping to get her to remember good things.

Sophita smiled as she began to recount her time with DesertRose to me. Describing in detail all the things he did to make her laugh, piss her off and the things he did to make it up to her. She went on for hour just talking about how great he was. I was glad to listen, it interested me what my characters thought of each other. I made a few jokes here and there which seemed to cheer her up. By the time I decided to leave you never would have thought Sophita just lost her husband to be.

" It was nice talking to you Sophita but I think I should get going." I said starting out the door.

" Wait, I never did get you name." Sophita called after me.

" It's Dark."

" Well thank you. I needed someone to talk to." She said looking down.

" Well I was happy to do it, just remember to focus on the good times. That' the best way to honor anyone you care about after they die." I said leaving the shop.

I immediately set out looking for Shou to see if he was done working on the shifter blade. I found him waiting near the area where we'd parted ways. I noticed he had a sword of his own tied to his waist as we walked up to each other.

" Here you go Dark, it's should be able to take a lot more punishment now." Shou said handing my sword to me.

" Great, thanks did you use the good hammer like I asked?" I asked running my hand along my blade.

" Of course the same hammer that made this guy right here." He said with a smile as he drew his sword, a red bladed katana.

" Hey, how about I we test your work? A quick spar in the desert just outside of town to see just how much better my sword is." I challenged with a smile.

" Sure, I've been wanting to see what Shadow's second in command can do. And my Blaze here has been getting a bit restless."

" Let's go then." I said running toward the desert.

Shou decided to walk, so I ended up waiting on him for a few minutes. There was a night and day difference from the city to the desert. Crystal city was warm with frequent cool breezes and just the right amount of sun, but as soon as you entered the desert the air became dry and the sun's heat was oppressive. Shou and I held our sword at the ready as we stood across from each other.

Shou made the first move, charging at me with his blade held low to the ground. I jumped into the air and flipped behind him as he struck, we both spun around clashing swords. We both smiled as I repelled Shou and charged at him, I started my attack and he expertly blocked every strike. No matter how I came at him he found a way to block or divert my strikes. Letting frustration get the best of me I struck at Shou sloppily and he knocked my sword from my hand.

" Not bad." He said holding his sword at my neck; " you just lost focus for a second there."

" So what." I said jumping back a few feet, " I'm human, I make mistakes. Besides it'll take more than a sharp blade to take me out anyway.

" Oh really, then you won't mind if we turn up the heat a little." Shou said as his sword began to glow.

" _Here we go…the red blade. Blaze of the flame."_ I thought holding out a hand as I willed t the shifter blade back to me. _" Wow, that didn't even sound good in my head…"_

Shou's blade continue to glow as the blade became a more wavy shape to the point were, coupled with it's glow, the blade faintly resembled a flame. The blade grew slightly in length, forcing Shou to hold the sword with both hands to keep it steady. Shou ran toward me again and struck, though I blocked the strike the heat coming of his blade burned my skin. He pushed me back and swung his blade down over my head, diving to the side I dodged the strike.

" What's wrong, can't take the heat?" Shou asked mockingly as I stood up.

"That's nothing compared to what I've been through in the past few days." I shot back spinning my sword. "I just have to make a little adjustment that's all"

I willed the shifter blade to change into a spear, but nothing happened. I glanced down at the blade and raised an eyebrow, and willed it to change again. Nothing.

" What's wrong can't even control your own weapon." Shou taunted, with a playful smirk.

" Technical difficulties that's-" I began as I felt a pulsation run through my sword, _"What the…"_

I looked down at the blade again as I felt another pulse ripple through the blade. Slowly it began to change, the blade lengthened slightly becoming wide near the hilt, skinny toward the center then widening again before coming to a sharp point. A long gray crystal ran up the center of the blade, and a length of chain appeared on the hilt and wrapped around my wrist.

I examined the blade curiously, taken aback by its sudden transformation. It was heavier than it was as a katana by as I gave it a few test swings it seemed much easier to wield.

" Impressive, but can we continue." Shou said impatiently.

" Uh…Yeah. I think we can." I replied swinging my sword by its chain. " And if your sword is still feeling restless let him cut loose a bit."

" Gladly." Shou said as he swung his blade launching a wave of fire toward me.

" All right the same as with-"

" Allow me." A feminine voice echoed in my head.

Glanced down at my blade and smiled, then swung it as the flames enveloped me. A gap opened in the flames and they passed around me without so much as burning a hair. My smile only grew bigger as I swung my blade again, sending a wave of force traveling across the ground toward Shou. Shou put his blade up to defend and the wave pushed him through the sand, knocking his sword away from him. Immediately followed up by swinging my blade over my head once, and throwing it toward him, grazing his check before my sword crashed down behind him.

" Ok I think you've tested out your word enough for one day." Shou said as he fell on his behind and sat Indian style. " We'll call this a draw for now. This heat is starting to get to me."

" Yeah me too, let's head back into the city." I said glancing at my blade again.

Shou and I parted ways again and I made my way to an inn that was chosen for the soldiers from shadow's camp. I was lucky enough to get a room to myself and sat alone with my door closed staring at my sword.

" Not a big talker are you?" the female voice said in my head again.

" Well, it's nice to be sure your sword can talk back before you start talking to it…because if I'm not talking to my sword then I'm going crazy." I said with a smile picking the sword up.

" You talked to me before when there wasn't even a possibility that I could talk back." The voice replied, " and you're not crazy, unique…but not crazy."

" Thanks…I think." I said uneasily, " So, what's your name? I'm sure you don't want to go by shifter blade now that you can think for yourself."

" Well your right, why'd you have that guy he never took care of me name me call me that anyway?" the voice asked intently.

"Wait, how did you know that I-"

" Just because I'm in your hand doesn't mean I'm not in your head as well. You think so much it's like an open book in there…" the voice said cutting me off, " Now my name, it's Mira I think?"

" You think?"

" I've only been able to think for a few hours, having a name didn't come to mind until you brought it up." Mira said a little offended.

" This is definitely going to interesting…and was that open book comment supposed to be an insult or a complement?" I asked staring hard at the sword.

" Hmm, I'm not sure… I'll have to get back to you on that one." Mira said as the blade returned to its normal form.

" What do you mean you'll get back to me on that? Mira…Mira!" I yelled with only silence as a reply.

" No luck with women even when they're an inanimate object." KidDark's voice chimed in with a laugh.

" And why the hell do you keep on popping back up just to make pointless remarks?" I asked angrily, with no reply once again. _" Son of a bitch, if I get anymore voices in my head like these two I'm going to go insane._


	11. Trouble in the Sand

Shadow: so when exactly am supposed to be helping out with this story.

Dark: all in good time my friend.

Shadow: so what will we talk about this time.

Dark: i'm thinking on putting up the story of when you raised those dragons.

Shadow: Seithr and Corona, but wasn't that in-

Dark: yes it was so this one will actually be a fanfic.

Shadow: but you haven't even finished a threat from the nether world ye.

Dark: don't bring that up...please

Shadow: the people are waiting.

Dark: I know they're waiting but they'll have to wait a little longer. you know i can't just type whatever comes to mind when i've written it already.

Shadow: well maybe you should tryhard to just type what comes to mind instead of typing what you wrote.

Dark: fine though i know how this will turn out, i'll ask the readers. Should i A) try to just type of the rest of the threat from the netherworld which will probably be alot faster, or B) should i type what i wrote which just may mean you won't see another chapter for a loooooooooong time.

Shadow: don't surprise him and you will be happy people

* * *

Trouble in the sand

" Dark, wake up…Wake up!" Mira's voice rang in my head, waking me up.

After getting the silent treatment from KidDark and Mira I had gone to sleep. I had a dream where flashes of destruction and chaos filled the city, and then the dream switched to my childhood. I was having fun with my family when Mira's voice pierced into my head.

" What did you say ma?" I said groggily, my eyes opening slightly.

" I'm not your mother! And Wake up something's going on." Mira said annoyed.

" Whoa, I'm up, I'm up!" I shouted as I sat up and swung my legs off of the bed. I grabbed Mira and stumbled out of the room into the hall.

" Are you ok? You can hardly stand up straight." Mira asked as I stabbed her into the wood floor and put my weight on her.

" I've had five minute to wake up get dressed and finish a two minute walk to my bus stop before and made it with seconds to spare. This is nothing." I said cracking a few joints, and freeing Mira from the ground. I shook the rest of my body to wake myself up then made my way outside.

Outside people were running back and forth frantically, as far as I could tell nothing serious had happened to the city itself. All the buildings were in the same condition as when we arrived here, some even seemed to be in better condition. I caught a soldier by the arm as he ran past me, nearly ripping his arm from the socket in the process.

" Sorry about that…" I said releasing his arm, " what's going on why's everyone running around so much."

" The creatures that inhabit the desert are going crazy, a few people who were near the edge of town have been injured. Everyone's panicking in fear that the beast may wreak havoc on the city." The soldier explained before running off again.

" What kind of creatures could cause this much worry?" Mira asked as I looked at my refection in her blade. " Hey! I'm not a mirror you know."

"Quiet, you said you can get ion my head so you know that I'm thinking." I whispered, scouring my mind for a hint as to what could live in the desert, _"The sand worms…Well they do have thick skin, and they are unreasonably huge. Maybe that's what they're worried about- Holy crap…DesertRose's Scorpion! I've got to see this."_

I took off running toward the desert side of the city, excited that I may see the "King Scorpion" DesertRose called a pet. I was so excited that I ran into a man unlucky enough to walk into my path. We collided and I fell back and rolled across the ground, I myself rolled with the fall and got right back to my feet. I looked back at the man I ran into as he got up, he wore a tight black t-shirt under a white vest and white pants. His hair was spiky and dark blue with a light blue patch over his right eye, his left eye was light blue while right was dark blue.

" Man and people thinks it's the electric guys that can't help but move fast, jeez." The man said rubbing his head.

" Sorry about that man, Jin of the Sakura Town Guard correct?" I asked knowing full well whom I was speaking to.

" Well I guess I'd still have that title today but the city was demolished, so it's just Jin now." He said looking me in the eye, " Oh you're that new guy…Dark Oblivion right?"

" Yeah, that's me. I was just in a hurry to see what's going on with the animals in the desert when I ran into you." I explained pointing toward the desert.

" Well I can't blame you for your enthusiasm I guess. Actually I was just headed there myself, we might as well go together after running into each other like that." Jin said laughing a little.

" Why not maybe if something happens we could team up. I know I wouldn't want to face a worm on my own."

" A worm? What could be so intimidating about a worm?" Jin asked raising an eyebrow.

" Oh you'll see." I said grabbing Jin's shoulder, " Let's go."

I Jin and I made our way over to the desert, I could see now that there was a bit of damage to the homes just outside the desert sands. People were frantically hovering over a few injured men and women. Espirina stood at the desert's edge alongside and old man who seemed to be expecting something. Curious I ran up beside her to find out what they were doing.

" Hey Espirina, I heard there was something going on with the creatures of the desert. I was interested so I thought I'd check it out." I explained, glancing at her as I stepped up beside her.

" Oh, hi Dark. Yeah we're not sure what's causing it but old man Terra thinks it may be the King Scorpion that DesertRose used to command." Espirina replied trying to avoiding eye contact.

" Old man Terra…who's that?"

" That would be me young man, my name is Shin Terra. And I would be grateful if you didn't call me old." The old man said gruffly as he stepped forward, "I may be over one hundred years old but I'm still more than match for anyone of you kids."

" Why is it that the elderly are always a bit cocky?" Jin asked stepping up as well.

" Well, they have the right and some can back it up. Isn't that right Shin?" I replied glancing at Shin.

" It looks like we have another guest coming toward the city. Espirina do you mind taking care of them?" Shin asked looking down at the desert sands.

"Actually, I came here to take on something out of the desert, you don't mind if I take this one do you Espirina?" I added before she could answer Shin.

" Sure, Break a leg." Espirina said surprised.

" Bad choice of words. If I'm right about what's coming, that's a real threat in this case." I shouted as I ran into the desert.

" That one is either very confident or just a little crazy." Shin muttered as I disappeared over a dune.

" Should one of us go with him, just in case? I mean sand worms aren't something you really want to face alone." Espirina pointed out her expression growing slightly worried.

" I'll go, I've been wanting to see what's so bad about these worms anyway." Jin said before taking off after me.

Don't ask me how I heard all this after I left, ever since I'd gotten to Natura my senses seemed to have been getting stronger. Anyway, I waited on the other side of the sand dune for Jin to join me; once he did we waited for any sign that something was coming.

" So how are we going to get this thing's attention once it shows up." Jin asked as the ground started shaking.

" We wont have to worry about that I think." I replied holding Mira at the ready.

" Holy crap that thing is going to be huge isn't it?" Mira called out in my mind, " Don't you dare try anything that might break me."

" You're a sword, something's bound to happen that'll break you!" I replied in a hushed yell.

The Grounds shaking continued to intensify as a huge bulge began to rise in the dune a few yards away from us. The next thing we knew a sand worm exploded out of the ground, sending of cloud of sand rushing past us. The worm was easily a hundred feet long, even with a good portion of its body still underground, it curved it's body down toward us opening the four long wedges that made up it's beak revealing several circular rows of teeth. Its body was covered in thick scales, from what I could guess they were about four or five inches thick at their thinnest points.

" Damn that's bigger than I was expecting." I yelled to Jin as the worm let out a loud clicking sound.

" I don't see what's so intimidating about this thing it's just a big bug." Jin said charging up a huge ball of electricity in his hand. " And I'm practically a walking bug zapper."

Jin launched his attack at the worm with little to no affect at all as it exploded on the creatures scales. The worm let out a screech as it closed its beak and began to fall over us. I grabbed Jin by the shoulder and threw him in front of me before diving out of the worm's way.

" Yeah about the worms, they have a high levels of silicon in their scales making them hard to hurt especially with electricity." I explained quickly looking around for the next place the worm could pop up.

" Why didn't you tell me that was why people are intimidated by these things, How the hell am I going to fight it!" Jin yelled angrily.

" Maybe you could just use a lightning rod…" I mumbled looking down at Mira.

" Fuck no." Mira said emphatically, leaving me with my jaw dropped.

" _Maybe I got more than I bargained for letting Shou bring you to life_…" I thought annoyed.

" And what's that supposed to mean?"

" _Oh right you can read __my mind…But anyway screw it if you don't want to act like a sword I'll just find another one that'll_-" I thought whipping an arm out, causing a sword to suddenly appear in my hand.

" What the hell." Mira and I said at once.

" _Since when can I do that?" _I thought looking a the sword as I scoured my memory for some explanation, coming to the incident when Agent Valor shot me, _" Well at least I didn't get shot at for nothing."_

" Wait, what about me." Mira asked as I stabbed her into the sand.

" You're worried about staying in one piece remember so stay there, and stay in one piece while I use a sword that isn't afraid to take on a tough job." I said as I ran toward the hole the sand worm disappeared into.

The hole was so deep I couldn't even guess how deep it could've been. I cautiously stalked around the hole, expecting the worm to pop at any moment. The ground began to shake again as another mound of sand began to rise off to the left of Jin. I ran over as the worm shot up of the ground again stabbing the sword into one of its scales. Getting thrown into the air in the process, the worm let out a pained screech letting me know that I'd maybe just pierced it's skin. As I steadied myself in the air the worm prepared to dive into the sand yet again. I guessed at the moment that Jin saw the chance took do some damaged to the worm by attacking the sword, because instead of moving out of the way he stayed put.

He launched another ball of electricity at the worm, and the sword, acting as a lightning rod, channeled the electricity into the worms. The worm responded with a deep clicking sound and dove toward Jin with its beak open. I looked on in horror as Jin disappeared with the worm as it dove underground.

" Dark!" Mira's voice called frantically in my head. I scoured the ground for any sign of her to no avail. I came to the conclusion that the worm had eaten her when it got Jin.

" Help…" her voice called again faintly.

" Hey you fucking worm get back up here, I'm not done with you yet!" I yelled furiously as I flew down into the sand pounding as hard as I could. " Come on, you damn bug! You afraid to come get me after you ate my friends?"

I have no clue if the worm heard me and got pissed off or just wasn't finished with its attack. Either way, the sand under my feet surged up as the worm came up yet again, launching me into the air before it snapped me up and swallowed me…Man I hate this next part…


	12. In the Belly of a Worm

Dark: jeez i was wondering when i was going to get to this part.

Shadow: oh yeah i remember when you first told me the story...nasty shit.

Dark: you don't know the half of it i swear i swallowed something when i fell into that things stomach... you know what i already had to type it, i'm not going to talk about.

Shadow: you okay?

Dark: yeah i don't think i'll throw up about it this time...

shadow: good, but just in case we'll cut this one short, the readers don't need the reader throwing up in front of them.

Dark: good point...enjoy the chapter

* * *

In the belly of a worm

I fell down the worm's throat in complete darkness, it was a slippery slimy ride until I feel into a pool of what I guessed to be digestive fluids mixed with large mounts of sand. I resurfaced, gasping for air and coughing up the fluid that had gotten into my mouth.

" _I think I swallowed some of that." _ I thought fighting the urge to vomit.

I felt around for anything that could help my situation, swimming as best I could through the sand thickened fluid I found my way to a mound of sand that was mostly dry.

"Ugh… this sucks, big time. I have to find Jin, and more importantly Mira, but I can't see." I said to myself sitting down.

" You can't see? Why not?" a girl's voice asked behind me?

" Because I'm the type of person who can…wait what the hell." I replied spinning around still blinded by the darkness, " Well that's just great either I'm hearing things or I'm at a major disadvantage to a potential enemy."

" I'm no enemy, and you're not hearing things. I'm a ghost, well more of a helpful spirit actually." The voice said again

" Yeah, great…Still blind as a bat here." I said in an annoyed tone as I stood up.

" Oh right sorry, I've been here so long I've memorized the place. I don't need light anymore." The voice explained as a pair of hands began to glow through the darkness.

The glow let me finally get a look at the spirit I was talking to, a very pale girl wearing a long white dress. The spirit cupped its hands together forming a small ball of light that floated into the air and illuminated the area.

" That's much better, I'd probably ask if you could do something about the sand and other crap I don't even want to think about. But I'm sure you have better things to do than help me get cleaned up…is this really the worm's stomach?" I asked looking around.

" It's more like a cave right? I thought the same thing when I was eaten, this thing actually swallows sand and absorbs whatever nutrients it can get. Catching anything alive is just a bonus for it, once anything it catches dies it can absorb the nutrients from the body as it decays." The spirits explained hovering over to a skeleton a few feet away.

" I don't plan on being here that long, trust me. What's your name anyway?" I said following her.

" My name is Frost, I was an ambassador for the ice kingdom in the north during the conflict with the Solarians. A group that wanted to start up a war through the conflict ambushed me and they dumped me in the desert." She explained turning to me.

" And you wandered around looking for help until this guy ate you." I added in, " that's horrible and I wish I was there to do something about it but, I have to find my friends."

" That's very kind of you, and did you say friends? The only person who was eaten before you was a man with blue hair, there was a sword as well but-"

" That sword is my friend and I have to find her too." I cut her off angrily, " I'm sorry I'm a bit pissed at the situation. Will you help me?"

" Well I'm not sure what I can do the sand men took them and they're not as kind as I am." Frost explained pacing a bit.

" Did you say sand men?" I asked giving her a strange look.

" Yes, they're more angry spirits of the people who were eaten by the worm. They possess the sand and make new bodies for themselves having lost their original body then they wander through the bowels of the worm and if anyone is unlucky enough to meet one the capture the person and kill them. There are also those who used to be thieves and collect whatever treasures the worm may swallow."

" Wow…and I thought this was going to be a boring rescue in the belly of a worm." I said sarcastically walking into the darkness. " Well I haven't got time to waste so if you're coming with, I'm going."

" Well you're going to need my light so I have to come along now don't I!" Frost said with a smile as she hovered behind me, " You don't mind the smell in this place? I hated it for the first hundred years or so."

" Well, It's not like I was expecting the smell of roses or anything. But I've learned not to complain to much about things you can't change." I said looking down at the sand, " if this sand wasn't here this would all be stomach juices wouldn't it?"

" Well this thing did clear out a lot of the sand that was in here a long time ago, then it's was like a putrid lake in hear for a few weeks until it filled up on sand again." Frost said looking around herself, " oh I forgot to mention there might be baby worms in here along with some other desert bugs."

" Would big scorpions be on that list?" I asked stopping.

" Yeah why?"

"There are a few of them coming our way." I said pointing to a group of scorpions that were about the size of a large dog, _" what I wouldn't give to have Mira in my hand right now." _ I thought making a sword appear in my hand.

" Dark, is that you?" Mira's voice called in my head, as I dove out of the way of one of the scorpion's tails.

" _Mira! Where are you I let the worm eat me, which I'm kind of regretting right now, and I'm searching for you and Jin." _Cutting off the tail of the same scorpion.

" I don't know where we are but I Jin and I were definitely separated, I can barely sense him." Mira replied as I dodged the tails of the other two scorpions.

" _Can you tell if you're tied down or anything, will I be able to call you back to me?" _I askedraising an eyebrow as the scorpions burrowed into the sand.

" I'm not sure…try it." Mira replied, just then the scorpion whose tail I cut off burst up from the sand behind me grabbing my leg with its pincers.

The scorpion pulled me to the ground as the other two came up out of the sand as well. I rolled frantically from side to side as they tried to skewer me with their venomous tails.

" A little help would be nice!" I shouted to Frost who was looking on in horror.

" But what can I do?"

" You're dead, they can do anything to you so just try anything!" I yelled again as one of the scorpions just missed stabbing me in the ribs.

" Uh, uh… oh! I know." Frost said as she flew through the scorpion holding my leg.

The scorpion let out a screech as ice began to form on its body and it was frozen from the inside out. Frost then continued to do the same thing to the other two scorpions, freezing them just before they could stab me in the chest.

" _Saw it in a cartoon before, but hey it worked." _I thought getting to my feet, " You've never done that before have you?"

" Well, no. Of course not…" Frost replied uneasily.

" If you ever get out of here you and I are going to spend some time finding out what you can do. You may be dead but since you're still here you have a gift that can really help people." I said holding out my arm, trying to call Mira back to me, _" Come on make this little bit of an easier job for me…"_

" What are you doing?" Frost asked staring at me.

I ignored her and concentrated on getting Mira back. I focused hard imagining flying into my hand as I did when I first called her to me to use against Nova. I saw a glint of light deep in the darkness as something flew toward me, a small tugged at my lips as Mira appeared out of the darkness and came to a rest in my hand.

" Don't get too happy I'm back Dark, I didn't come alone." She said as a windy howl came from the darkness.

" Sounds like a sandman liked your sword." Frost said fading out of sight, leaving only her light.

" Hey wait min- yeah she's gone…" I said disappointed.

"Here he comes." Mira warned as a mass of sand shapes like the profile of a man came out of the darkness.

I told Mira via thought to change into her true shape, and then with a quick swing I launched a wave of force at the sandman. Reducing him to a small hill of sand.

" _That was too easy…" I _thought not noticing the sandman was reforming behind me.

" Dark look out!" Mira shouted as I turned around, taking a huge, sandy fist to the face. Knocking me out cold.

I awoke in total darkness with no clue where I was, besides being in the belly of a worm. My hands were held fast behind my back with some kind of stone handcuffs, as were my feet. I squirmed my way to sitting up right and looked around, then noticed the faint sound of breathing close by me.

" Jin is that you?" I whispered as I wiggled my way toward the sound.

" Damn it dark doesn't tell me you got eaten too." Jin replied angrily.

" Well both you and the sword I'd need to save you got eaten so I thought hey why not join the frickin' party!" I shot back, " Don't get angry at me for coming to help you."

" So you got a plan, if I try anything with electricity whatever captured me hits me in the gut with a sword or something. And I can't seem to shock them so I'm pretty useless right now." Jin said with a sigh.

" I just might hold on a sec." I replied as I closed my eyes. _" Kid…Kid… I know you're there help me out here."_

"If I could help you don't you think I would have already…" KidDark said flatly.

" _You're part of me and shadow which means your two kinds of an asshole rolled into one. So no, I don't expect you to just help me when I need it."_ I replied annoyed.

" Well, I guess you have a point. But I really have nothing I can do…you ever try bring the void to your eyes, maybe that'll do something." Kid suggested.

"Anything's worth a shot at this point," I thought shifting my focus to my eyes.

I sat for a moment feeling no change in my eyes or anywhere else for that matter. After about a minute I gave up and opened my eyes, to my surprise I could see very clearly. I was further down the worm's stomach near another pool of digestive juices; around me were a small group of sandmen sharpening old rusty blades. One of them had Mira, which sort of pissed me off a bit, but other than that join was the only living soul in the area.

" Jin, I can see them. I'm going to try to break loose and take these guys out." I whispered to Jin as I began to twist my hand in their cuffs.

" Yeah, you do that… I'll just wait here." Jin replied sounding left out.

" _Ok… how do I take these guys out since brute force obviously doesn't work" _I thought as I manage to crack my cuff in two, _" wait a minute…energy creates heat right and when sand gets hot enough you get glass… that might just work."_

With my hand free I easily freed my legs from their bonds and slowly got to my feet. Sadly one of the sand men heard the stone break and alerted the others to my attempted rescue. There were four sand men in total and they each increased their size with the sand around them.

" Well might as well test my plan outright." I said to myself rolling out of the way as one of the sandmen slammed its fists down over my head, " _remember high heat, low strength…_Hex cann- no it's not exactly the same attack."

I fired a beam of energy from my hand, engulfing one of the sandmen and leaving a perfect glass statue in its place. The other three came at me at once two with their own blade and one with Mira. He struck first and I merely took the blow on the shoulder, I grabbed Mira and wrenched her from sand sandman's hand.

" How'd you know I wouldn't cut you?" She asked as I dodged the other two sandmen's blades.

" A good sword won't cut its owner, right Mira." She remained silent but I could sense a wave of happiness coming from her.

With a smile I fired another beam of energy on one of the sandmen, the switched my aim to another. It collapsed into the sand just before my attack could hit then came up under me, taking me by the leg and holding me upside down in the air. The other remaining sand man came toward me and raised its blade to strike me. Then form out of nowhere frost appeared and flew though the sandman, freezing it solid, and then she continued to do the same to the one holding me.

" So, you actually decided to come help? After you left me to fight that first one on my own I was beginning to have my doubts." I said with a devilish smile, still hanging in the grip of the frozen sandman.

" What? A dead girl can't get a little scared and run away?" Frost asked floating in circle around me.

"Well-" I began just as the sandman's hand snapped, dropping me head first into the sand, " Okay… fate just told me to shut up."

Frost laughed as I broke what remained of the hand off my leg and went over to free Jin. I broke his cuffs and helped him to his feet. Now came the real hard part of our little escape, how to get out of the worm.

" Ok I know one thing for sure, I'm not going through any damn back door and we need to get out of here." I said pacing about.

" Well, I can't see a thing but if you can bring me to the wall of the worm's stomach maybe I can cause enough irritation to get it to surface and then maybe you could slice the damn thing open." Jin said staggering a bit, his lack of vision affecting his balance.

" I like that plan. _If you're up to it that is." _I thought looking at Mira.

" Well it's like you said before, I am a sword. I'm made for things like this, I shouldn't complain." Mira replied sounding a bit down.

" _Yeah I'm sorry about that, I should have known from the moment I handed you to Shou that if you did come to life there might be situations and things you want no part of." _I thought apologetically.

" Hey if you guys kill the worm what's going to happen to me, what'll I do." Frost asked worry clear in her voice.

"Who is that anyway?" Jin put in before I could answer her.

" Oh, uh…she's frost but I can't really introduce you until you can see, so let's put this plan into action." I said uneasily as I guided Jin to the stomach wall.

Jin gave a disgusted groan as his hand touched the slimy stomach walls of the worm. He went to work quickly pouring electricity into the creatures flesh. We could feel the worm writhe and wiggle in discomfort as Jin continued his work. For what seemed like a split second the ground beneath my feet went vertical, then leveled out again, leaving me face down in a pool of digestive juices.

" Oh come on again." I cried as I spat out whatever had gotten into my mouth.

" If you're going to gut this thing do it now." I don't think I can shock this thing like that again.

" Right." I replied with an angry groan as I shook the digestive fluid off of Mira.

I had her change to her true form again and began swinging her by her chain over my head_. "You can focus that little shockwave thing you do so it has more of a cutting affect right?" _I asked increasing the speed at which I swung her around.

" Of course."

" _Then please do it." _I asked as I swung Mira out in front of me and swung her in a perfect circle cutting into the worm's stomach wall.

Though I couldn't really see it I could hear the sound of the force of Mira's blade cutting through the worm. I suddenly felt bad as the worm clicked and screeched in pain, but I knew it was kill or be killed. Blood and other bodily fluids rained down on us as the worm feel into two pieces around us. The natural light hurt my eyes, forcing me to shield them for a moment and then I was fine.

The warm desert air blew away the stench of the worm's innards as Jin and I stepped out of its carcass, Frost floating behind us.

" Oh right, Jin this is Frost, she's the spirit of a woman who died in that worm." I said pointing to Frost as I realized they hadn't been properly introduced.

" Right, so is she coming with us?" Jin asked, Frost nodding uneasily in response.

" Well anyone have any clue where we are?" I asked without a response, " didn't think so…"

" This is quite a feat you've accomplished." A familiar voice chuckled off to the left of us, " not many people actually manage to kill a full grown sand worm, although you're methods were…unique."

" Old man Terra?" Jin said turning to the old man.

" Hey I remember you, you were that guy who refused to help me when I first got lost in the desert." Frost said pointing at him.

" Oh my, Frost was it…I must apologize for my behavior back then. I was young and full of pride, it is very much fault that you had the misfortune of being eaten by such a creature." Shin said taking a step forward, " And you still look just as good as you did when I first met you. But, I must help these youngsters get back to the city. They have much to do, and I can only carry them so fast."

" Carry us what do you mean by that?" I asked as he turned away.

Striking his cane in the sand he rose into the air on a floating platform made of sand.

" You didn't think they called me old man Terra for nothing did you?"

With a smile I ran up to and climbed on shin's platform with Jin close behind. Once we were all on the platform took off in what I could only guess was the direction of the city. Frost kept pace flying besides us being sure to keep her eye on shin. I thought of asking for more about how they knew each other but decided against it. Content to be out of the worm's stomach, I relaxed and let myself drift off to sleep until we arrived back at the city.


	13. D vs S

Dark: All right, it's time for one of the more memorable moments in this story

Shadow: and what would that be?

Dark: think about it, what happened the day after the worm incident…

Shadow: what are you talking abou- Oh yeah, our first fight.

Dark: exactly and I'm going to need your input on this chapter.

Shadow: ok what do I have to do…

Dark: well I'm going to be switching back and forth between my point of view and yours, that way readers can know what was going through both our minds as things play out.

Shadow: ok who's going to start it out then?

Dark: well, how about you. I'm going to be starting every other chapter, and besides it was you that challenged me remember?

Shadow: oh, right. Well then let's get this chapter started then.

--------

Shadow's POV

It was the day I had estimated DesertRose's army to arrive at Crystal city. Everyone was tense and jumpy, Espirina more than anyone else, the thought of the man who had trained her being the enemy was killing her. Myself personally, I was bored out of my mind. I had made sure all the soldier were alert and ready to react at the first sign of trouble, but my nature as a fighter left me wanting to see a little action right now.

I made my way through crystal city to find Dark. Him being the man responsible for my personality I was sure he was just as anxious as I was. No one I had asked had seen him so I went to the Inn where he was staying and searched for his room.

" _I wonder if he's even awake yet." _ I thought as I stopped outside his room, _"well if he is he's in for a rude awakening"_

As I pushed open the door to his room Dark was sitting on the edge of his bed breathing hard, almost as if he'd been running from something.

" You alright?" I asked stepping inside.

" Just a nightmare." He replied glancing up at me, for a moment his eye looked like they were made of shimmering black fluid then quickly changed back to normal. " Why the heck are you looking for me anyway?"

" Well, boredom was finally getting to me. So I thought I could go around or two with the new guy." I said with a smile stepping past him and picking up his sword. " Wow this thing looks much better than when I used it."

" That thing has a name, and she'd appreciate it if you put her down." Dark said offended.

" She?" I replied as I handed him the sword.

" Her name is Mira, I let had Shou fix her up once we got here."

" Ah so that explains it…" I said with a nod as I walked out of the room, " Are you going to fight me."

" Of course, Mira and I will kick your ass." Dark shot back confidently.

" Great, we'll go at it in the desert so we don't have to worry about destroying anything." I added as I shut the door again, making my way to the desert to wait.

-------------------

Dark's POV

" _What the hell was that nightmare about…" _I thought, getting myself together after shadow left. _" So many people dead…and that voice, it kept saying it was my fault."_

I drove out the questions plaguing my mind as I left the inn in search of shadow. As expected I found him sitting in the desert watching the sky. He got to his feet as I approached him and a slight smirk spread across his face.

" It looks like we have an audience." He said pointing over my shoulder.

Sure enough when I turned to look a crowd of soldiers had gathered at the edge of the city. I laughed quietly as I turned to look at shadow again, shaking my head in disappointment.

" You had to make it a show didn't you?" I asked with a smile.

" I may have let my plans slip to a few people, that's all."

" Well I guess we have make sure we don't disappoint." I said pointing Mira towards him.

" So you want to start with a little swordplay then?" Shadow asked as a black katana appeared in his hand.

" How else would we start a fight!" I yelled as I charge at him.

Shadow shifted his stance slightly as he blocked my strike; we both had smiles on our faces as we both jumped back to gain a little reaction space. This time shadow charged at me, his blade covered in a shadowy aura.

"_I know what all of his moves look like before he does them, I have the advantage there." _I thought watching shadows movements as best I could. _" He's going to use dark blade… but long range or short?"_

My answer came as Shadow swung his blade down into the ground sending a towering arc of dark energy barreling through the ground toward me. I dove out of the way of the attack as it carved a trench where I had been standing. I glanced toward shadow to find him gone and instantly knew I had to move. I rolled forward as a blade plunged into the ground behind me, quickly getting to my feet and facing Shadow.

" Come on Dark you can do better than that." Shadow said disappointedly as he drew his sword from the ground.

" I'll show you better." I muttered as I stabbed Mira into the sand.

Shadow raised an eyebrow as I charged at him unarmed. As he raised his blade to strike at me I flicked my fingers downward, increasing the force of gravity on his blade. He had a curious look in his eye as he ducked to doge my punch; taking advantage of his lapse in focus I followed up with a knee to the his face, knocking him on his back

-------

Shadow's POV

I hit the ground dazed for a moment, then rolled to me feet and leapt at Dark. He flipped back ward as I attempted to kick him, then he sprung forward and tried to punch me again. I grabbed his arm and threw him over my head, twisting his body in the air he landed a few yards away from me.

" Let's stop with the kiddy stuff and really get this fight going." I said as I pointed a finger crackling with electricity toward Dark. " Silver streak."

A bolt of electricity arc from my finger through Dark's chest, bring him to his knees. A wave of murmuring passed through the crowd as they watched, then as dark stood up again they fell silent.

"Damn it man that hurt!" Dark yelled furiously as his sword flew past my head into his hand.

His sword suddenly changed into a much heavier shape with a chain, he swung it once and a burst of force pushed me through the sand. I looked down and had a cut on my chest, and then I heard something above me and looked up to see dark rushing toward me. I barely had time to jump out of the way as he landed with explosive force, creating a huge cloud of sand and dust.

---------------

Dark's POV

" _Damn I missed."_ I thought angrily, hefting Mira from the sand.

I stabbed her into the ground as I glanced around, trying to find some sign of shadows movements through the cloud of sand my attack created. Suddenly an intense pain flared up in my head, almost like some had it under a jackhammer. I could barely hear Mira's voice calling out to me, but my I couldn't think or speak any reply. I suddenly saw everything as though through a dark fog.

I shook my head hard and the fog thinned a bit but my thoughts remained idle. Then a figure came at me through the fog and before I knew it I had it by the throat and slammed it down into the sand. The figure coughed up a little blood, for some reason that put a twisted smile on my face…

-------

Shadow's POV

I knew right from the vacant look in dark's eyes that something was wrong. From what I'd seen from him up until now he'd never shown this kind of aggression. I tried to get up but he tightened his grip on my neck and held kept me down with little to no effort. The evil grin on his face grew wider as he tossed me into the air just as the dust around us began to settle. I recovered and stopped my ascent but as I scanned the ground dark was nowhere to be seen. Then I sensed a growing mass of energy behind me and spun around to see dark hovering above me charging an attack.

He pointed two fingers toward me then flicked them towards himself, the air around him distort as a gravity field being drawing everything in my direction toward him.

" Dark, Dark…you're taking this a bit seriously, don't you think." I yelled as I did my best to resist the gravity field's pull.

Dark didn't respond, his expression only changed to an angry glared as he flicked his fingers toward himself again, strengthening the gravity field. Despite my best efforts I was drawn in at an alarming speed toward Dark. Then as I came within arms reach he unleashed a beam of energy point blank in my face, engulfing my body and propelling me to the ground.

------

Dark's POV

I regained my senses after my assault on Shadow, completely shocked that I couldn't stop myself. Suddenly I felt drained and dizzy and fell back to the earth with a loud thud, groaning in pain from the impact.

" Dark, are you okay? You were in so much pain I could feel it." Mira Asked in my mind sounding exhausted.

" You sound tired…didn't know that could happen to a sword…" I mumbled as I struggled to get back to my feet.

" So it looks like you finally snapped out of it. " shadow said stepping out of the small glass lined carter my attack created, his coat and shirt mostly burned off. " Can you continue."

" Not sure… want to pull the old last man standing final attack thing." I said breathing heavily.

" If you're that drained why not, we'll need a rest before the enemy anyway." Shadow replied kneeling down and sifting through the sand and pulling out his sword

" _All right, I need a big attack to…holy crap I have nothing big…" _I thought as Shadow's blade became shrouded in a shadowy aura again. _"Mira please tell me you can help me out here?"_

" I'll do my absolute best." Mira shot back as Shadow launched another dark blade at me. " Just swing!"

Not being the type to argue with my weapon as a giant blade of energy was rushing toward me, I did as I was told. I swung Mira toward the ground; releasing a wave of force that was roughly the same size as Shadow's attack. Our two attacks collided in a large explosion, creating a small black mushroom cloud between us. I covered my face as the shockwave face the explosion tossed dust into the air, coughing a bit. Then I looked up and a volley of small energy orbs came flying through the smoke, exploding as they crashed into me. I let a pained grunt as they explosion knocked me through the air and I hit the sand hard. I knew I was neat, even though I could've gotten back up a stayed down.

" Good match, excluding that little freak out." Shadow said as he walked over to me.

" The next fight will be better I promise you that, no freaking out or anything like that." I replied extending a hand.

" Well you haven't really trained with your abilities have you?" Shadow shot back as he took my hand and helped me up.

" Well no… never had the time."

" Well the when we get back to camp I'll make sure you see some time on the training grounds." Shadow said with a smile turning toward the city. " Now come on we should rest up the enemy could get here any time."

As Shadow finished his sentence an alert horn sounded within the city. The crowd that had gathered to watch our fight dispersed in second, with the all the soldiers rushing to the opposite side of the city. Shadow glanced at m let out an exasperated sigh.

" No rest for the weary I guess." I said rest Mira on my shoulder.

" I guess not, but there's nothing we can do about it now." Shadow said laying a hand on my shoulder, " let's go."

"Right."

We took off running through the city to the lookout tower. All the while I wondered what happened to me in the desert. I pushed the thought out of my mind as well as I could and focused on the task ahead of me. But something inside me told me that this wasn't going to be a simple as it looked.


	14. The Battle for Crystal City

Dark: the first big battle...just makes you want pick up a sword and got at the first person you can find doesn't it?

Shadow: what the f....never mind.

Dark: what ...I'm bored, you know I'm violent when I'm bored.

Shadow: that you are * reads the chapter* what were you thinking fighting that guy in his element anyway.

Dark: hey i was pissed you saw what he did that s**t was F***ed up.

shaddow: well i agree there but still that just isn't smart...

Dark: so sue me i 'm the one who still has the scars from it

Shadow: you let yourself get scars? why.

Dark: reminders of why i do the hero thing instead of just screwing around with my powers.

shadow: you just thiunk they're cool don't you

Dark...that too...i can't really deny let the readers get to the story.

* * *

The Battle for Crystal City

Soldiers stood at the ready in the grassland just outside of the city, as Espirina Shadow and I looked down from the look out tower. DesertRose and his forces had just dipped below the horizon, the landscape became more hilly about two acres away from them city. The air was tense as everyone anxiously awaited the first sign of the enemy on the horizon again, it was decided that we'd begin our assault on the enemy as far away as possible within our line of sight to ensure we wouldn't be waltzing into a trap.

I glanced around at Shadow and Espirina, Shadow looked focused but Espirina seemed like he was questioning what she should do. She had her weapons, two medium-sized ring blades, each with three arrowhead-like protrusions along the outer edge, strapped to her back, as well a pouch attached at her waist. Her power was a telepathic control over gems and crystals, so her ring blades had a gem embedded near each arrowhead to give her control over her weapons.

"Espirina, you sure you're all right with taking part in this?" I asked glancing out into the distance.

"I'm fine…if DesertRose really is with the enemy now it would be disrespectful for me to turn away now." She replied in a depressed tone.

Though I wanted to try and cheer her up, I decide it'd be better to just leave her alone. Instead I started a conversation in my head with Mira about what weapons it'd best for her to become in this battle. A soldier next to me had his eye to the lookout tower's telescope scanning the horizon for the first sign of trouble.

" Everyone out of the tower!" I shouted, sensing danger.

" What are you talking about?" Espirina asked, turning to me.

" Just get out!" I yelled again as I threw everyone out of the tower with a gravitational burst.

I jumped out after them just as a beam of energy struck the top of the tower, destroying it. I lessened the force of gravity on the others as they neared the ground, leaving myself to crash to the ground.

"Go, now. Attack." I yelled, pushing myself up slowly. With a roaring battle cry the soldier charged out into the field as DesertRose's force's appeared on the horizon.

" You know we never came up with a title for the creature that attacked you back in your world." Shadow pointed out as he stepped up beside me.

" This isn't really the time but I was just going to call them cannon-blades. That's what they have to kill you with." Said dusting myself off as I stood up.

" Focus you two!" Espirina said as she ran past us.

" I guess we should get down to business." I said tapping shadow on the soldier as I ran after Espirina.

Shadow joined too as we ran to catch up with the rest of our soldiers, who were all busy trying to keep up with a large group of jump soldiers. We all split up as we joined the fray; I made my way for a jump soldier that had appeared behind a soldier who was busy with another two in front of him. Using the element of surprise I cut the jump soldier in half at the waist, then I continued on and ran toward the rest of the enemy forces.

" Dark stop." Mira ordered a cannon-blade appeared above me and began to fall. I flipped back as it plunged its blade arm into the ground where I'd been standing, then as I t removed the blade from the ground two more appeared behind it.

" Three on one? Come one you can do better than that." I said cockily as the three surrounded me.

I jumped into the air as one of the cannon blades swung down at me, I teleported behind it a lopped of its sword arm at the shoulder. The cannon blade let out a sputtering roar of pain as it hovered backward trying desperately to get at me with its cannon arm. With a smile I jumped to the ground and tossed Mira into the air, quickly grabbing the severed arm of the cannon blade I spun around. I caught the cannon blade between the ribs and cut right through, and then I threw its arm toward the other two. One of them blasted the arm narrowly missing me, then it teleported in front of me with its cannon arm pointed at my head.

" I wouldn't point that thing at me if I were you, something bad might happen…" I said with a smirk as I saw the energy charge up in the back of the cannon-blades arm.

My smirk turn into a smile as a bolt of electricity pierced through the cannon-blades skull, the creature collapsed to the ground revealing shadow standing atop the body of the third cannon blade.

" We better get the rest of these guys." Shadow said, pointing to the rest of the enemy forces that were charging toward us.

Again there was a new type of enemy, eight-foot tall, axe wielding monster that looked like a cross between a Cyclops and an extremely muscular jump soldier. There was an entire force twice the size of our own made up of the creatures, and in the middle of them DesertRose rode atop the shoulder of one of the creatures.

" Okay…what do we call these things?" I asked Shadow as I changed Mira into her true form.

" Until we come up with something better…Brutes." Shadow replied before charging toward them.

i quickly followed suit running full speed at the brutes, then over my head one of Espirina's ring blade's whizzed through the air. it arced across the throats of the first line of brutes killing the whole lot, their falling bodies creating a small mounds of bodies. i spotted Espirina out of the corner of my eye as i began my attack, i jumped high into the air and plunged Mira into the shoulder of a brutes as i came down. the creature bellowed in pain as I pulled Mira out of it's shoulder and slid down it's back. it was then i noticed that the spine of a brute bulged out of it's back, deciding that crippling the beast would be much faster than killing it, i hacked through the creatures spine.

" Dark , watch out!" Mira called as another brute threw it's axe at me.

I rolled out of the way just before the axe crashed into the ground where I'd been standing, i glanced at it and realized that the blade of the axe was nearly my height. i fired an hex cannon as the brute who threw the as bore down on me, knocking it off it's feet and onto another behind it. I glanced to the side as Shadow unleashed a dark blade attack on an unfortunate few brutes, the blade of dark energy cut through the beasts as though they were nothing. i glanced toward Espirina, she was busy sending her ring blade though the air slitting the throat of any brute that dared face her. With a smile i returned my focus to the brutes coming at me, i began spinning Mira around over my head with the intent to have her release a shock wave blade on the approaching brutes.

" Ready?" i asked Mira as the brutes neared me.

"Always."

Giving some slack to her chain i let Mira fly in a wide arc toward the brutes, launching a blade of forced that cut down all but one of the remaining brutes. shadow and Espirina joined up with me as i stared at the last brute, the one DesertRose was riding on. the brute walked up to us with deep growl, it stopped a few yards away from us and DesertRose dropped down to the ground. he was wearing light colored clothing made of the usual light material worn by those who lived in the desert. on his back he had a scimitar that was about a little less than twice the size of a normal one, and over his right eye he wore an eye patch with a scorpion design on it.

"Espirina, nice to see you again." he said flatly as he glanced in her direction. " i hope you guy don't think that you'll be getting a chance at me so soon just because you defeated a few monsters Nightmare created."

a tiny smirk spread across his face as he pulled the scimitar off his and cut open his brutes stomach, as the huge beast fell it collapsed ito the black smoke i now considered to be nightmare's trademark. all around us the bodies of brutes transformed into smoke and hung in the air for a moment, then it began to reform into a number of cannon blade's that instantly teleported away.

" if you plan on defending the city i suggest you go after them." he said chuckling softly.

" Why are you doing this!' Espirina screamed as she charged at him.

" at the moment of my death my spirit was broken and nightmare seized the opportunity to take control of me." Desertrose explained a he sidestepped Espirina, " he seals the motions and increase the fear of death, then he holds you by a thin string that acts as your lifeline."

" Dark take care of the city we can take DesertRose." shadow ordered.

i nodded in agreement before teleporting back into the city, once there i immediately found the cannon blades destroying the city. with an annoyed sigh i got to work, i transform Mira into a heavy bladed boomerang and threw her, decapitating a few cannon-blades near the front of the city. i steadily worked my way through the city, easily picking off the cannon-blades within. then as i cut one down near the center of the city i heard a scream echo from the direction of the desert, i couldn't figure out who it could be at first and just ran as fast as i could while taking out any enemies that got in my way.

" out of my way kid." someone called behind me as DesertRose fell to the ground in front of me and kept running.

Much to my confusion he attacked and killed the cannon-blades he passed, i followed him all the way to the edge of the desert where a few cannon-blades surrounded Sophita's shop. they jabbed their blades into her small building repeatedly, a scream erupting from inside every time they did. adding to my confusion DesertRose stopped one of the cannon blades as it turned it's cannon arm on Sophita's shop and decapitated it, finishing the other few off just as easily.

" Wait a minute are you on our side or are you against us? you're sending mixed signals here buddy." I said as i stepped up behind him.

" am i now..." he replied softly as he drew his sword, " well i guess you'll figure it out by the time i kill you."

We both readied ourselves to strike when the door to Sophita's shop creaked open slowly, Sophita stood in the doorway dumbstruck at what she saw. Tears filled her eyes as she slowly walked forward toward DesertRose, her expression changing to one of shock, confusion, pain as he pointed his sword at her.

" well don't you look like a mess?" DesertRose said noting her torn clothing, obviously caused by the cannon-blades.

"i don't understand... why are you?" Sophita muttered as she glanced from him to the point of the sword.

" still haven't moved on i see...well that's too bad because I'm not the same man you used to love." DesertRose began lowering the sword slightly, "that man is dead, the only reason i killed those monsters just now is because i still have his memories. It didn't seem right not to honor the man i used to be by helping his fiance."

" but if you remember that you must remember that you loved me, don't you?" She asked as her tears began to flow.

" i don't know what the word love means, I'm an emotionless killer as the man who revived me wished me to be, his lack of experience however let me keep the memories of my past and my reason." D.R continued as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring, tossing it at Sophita's feet. " that belongs to you, take it and leave. i have a city to destroy."

Sophita fell to her knees and picked up the ring, clutching it to her chest as she cried. Ignoring DesertRose i went to her side to try and comfort her, but my efforts were futile. the man she loved, or at least what was left of him, wanted nothing to do with her anymore. her heart was shattered, and all i could do was watch and try to get her to pick up the pieces.

i sensed DesertRose ready himself to strike with his sword, but my focus on Sophita made me ignore it. he said something as he swung the sword at us but he was cut off as Espirina's ring blades cut across his face and chest.

" Get out of this city." Espirina ordered angrily, stepping forward as she caught her ring blades,

" you really think you should be giving me orders, after all i did teach you most of what you know." d.r said as he turned to face her.

" my teacher left this town to me and wanted me to protect it after he left. i don't care if you're using his body, your not my teacher anymore." Espirina shot back, her focus visible in her eyes.

"well then..." d.r rose said as sand from the desert began to hover in the air and circle around him, " if you want to protect the city let's see you fight me on my playing field.

the sand suddenly pulled DesertRose into the desert and out of sight, Espirina chasing after him as best she could. i knew that this couldn't turn out well so i decided it was best that i follow her.

" Sophita i promise you that if i can I'll bring back the man that you fell in love with." i said as i stepped away from her, " but for now please go inside."

not waiting to see whether she listened or not i ran out into the desert, because i knew if i did I'd probably end up staying with Sophita and trying to comfort her. i pushed all other thoughts out of my mind except for kicking the crap out of DesertRose as i picked up speed, suddenly a giant hand made of sand came up and grabbed me. Without warning it tossed me through the air, i managed to land on my feet when i came to a stop and found myself beside Espirina. she hardly noticed me as i tapped her on the shoulder, only nodding to acknowledge my presence.

"not too smart coming into the desert to fight a guy who controls sand?" D.R.'s voiced echoed from every direction.

" yeah just show your face so we can get this over with you dirty bastard." i yelled angrily as i scanned the area to see if i could pinpoint where he was hiding.

" you'll probably regret those words." D.R.'s voice echoed again as the ground began to shake.

" not another sand worm..." I groaned holding Mira at the ready.

" no way we'd be that lucky right now, look." Espirina said pointing to the rising mound of sand in front of us.

A large scorpion tail, easily 20 feet in length, rose up out of the mound. the mound of sand began to fall away revealing DesertRose riding on the back of a giant scorpion. he stared at us with an expressionless face as he jumped down to the sand and pulled his sword off of his back.

" let's get this going already." he said as he pulled his sword off his back and speed toward us, practically skating on the sand. Espirina jumped out of the way as i blocked his strike with Mira. Reaching into the pouch at her waist Espirina pulled out a small bottle that contained small green crystals, opening the bottle she took one out and it rapidly increased in size. Almost as if he knew exactly what she was thinking DesertRose knocked me back, jumping away as Espirina caused the crystal to shattered into small sharp fragment and shoot toward him.

he quickly followed up by creating a huge floating fist of sand and launching it at her, knocking Espirina to the ground and burying her with sand. i changed Mira back of her true form and charged at D.R., he glanced at me and caused the sand beneath my feet to trip me. i landed flat on my face, and then a burst of sand below me knocked me into the air. i stopped myself and looked down to see a javelin of sand flying toward me, reacting fast i swung Mira launching a wave of force at the javelin, dispersing it. Out of the corner of my eye i saw Espirina pop out of the sand that covered her, hoping she'd pick up on my plan i flew straight down toward DesertRose. Fulfilling my hope Espirina threw her ring blades toward him at the same time, but much to my disappointment as both our attacks neared him he collapsed into sand. quickly changing my plan from one of offense to defense fired the same high heat energy blast i used inside the and worm of the sand below turning what was on the surface to glass. i let myself touch down genlty on the glass and looked around, Espirina quickly joining me.

" so what ever happened to shadow?" i asked, having had the question on my mind for a while.

" Desert rose made more of those big guys show up so shadow stayed behind to help fight them." Espirina explained as DesertRose appeared again. pulling out another crystal Espirina did the same trick again, this time Desert rose pulled out his sword and blocked the attack.

Taking my chance i teleported behind him and slashed across his right shoulder, the side he held his sword with. He grunted in pain for a moment as his hold on his sword faltered and a few crystal fragment dug deep into the left side of his chest. he collapsed into sand yet again and reappeared behind me, wrapping a tentacle of sand around my leg and slamming me into the ground. the impact of the slam drove the wind from my body, standing over me DesertRose formed a blade of sand on his left hand and raised it high over my neck.

" Don't forget about me!" Espirina shouted as she threw her ring blades at him.

" stop throwing those toys at me." D.R. said as he caught the two blades in a wall of sand, "one of these days beig helpful is going to get you hurt, and i think it's going to be today."

As he finished the sentence sand wrapped around Espirina's arms and leg and lifted her parallel to the ground solidify into stone pillars. i struggled to catch my breath and stand as another pillar of sand began to rise up under her back, Desert rose slowly walking up to her as it did.

" let me... go" Espirina yelled as she struggled to break free of her bonds.

" you know, even before i died and was brought back i never really thought you were much of a fighter. but you were determined back then and your power had potential so i took pity on you and tried to teach you." D.R. began as the sand pillar began to force Espirina's body into a painful arc, " It's obvious now i was right now isn't it."

" I...don't...believe...you!" Espirina said through clenched teeth, trying to hide her pain.

" what reason do i have to lie now, in a few short minutes the sand is going to make your spine snap like a twig, then you'll be a useless cripple." D.R. added.

I'd heard enough, i hadn't totally recovered but i forced myself to stand. i could really move but i managed to raise an arm toward in DesertRose's direction. suddenly my head began to hurt like it did when i faced shadow but it didn't so much cloud my thoughts as it gave me idea's and made me feel angry enough to try them out. i was hesitant at first but the gruesome sound of the popping and cracking of bones coupled with a scream from Espirina blocked erased any sense of hesitation.

At first it looked like there were giant worms crawling underneath the skin of my arm as i called upon my power to form metal, then as the " worms hit my wrist they burst out from under my skin and revealing themselves to be thick metal tentacles. they shot out toward DesertRose piercing straight through his stomach and wrapping around the four pillars that held Espirina, breaking them. her body fell limp to the ground, deepening my anger. i retracted the tentacles back into my arm, leaving no trace of them as i readied dark energy in my right hand to use dark impact.

D.R. staggered and feel to a knee as once the tentacles were removed, black smoke and fluid pouring from the wound. he got to his feet slowly as i charged at him, at the last moment he spun around sending sand spikes shooting up from the ground into my chest an stomach, literally filling me with holes. I staggered toward him a few steps before falling on my face.

" i hope you're not disappointed..." DesertRose said as he tossed me beside Espirina with a hand made of sand, " you may be dead but you've succeeded for now, i can't take out the city in this condition."

i wasn't dead, in a lot of pain but i wasn't dead. As DesertRose walked away the sand around Espirina and i began to swirl around until it became a whirlpool of sand. Using what little strength i had left o grabbed Espirina and desperately tried to wake her up.

" ah, what the...where's." she muttered, wincing as she came around.

" can you walk?" i asked quickly, as we got closer to the bottom of the whirlpool.

" not sure, i can still feel my legs though..." she said still not realizing our situation.

" good, this might hurt a little." i said as i blasted her out of the whirlpool with a gravitational burst just as i was sucked into the sand at the bottom of the whirlpool.

Again i found myself falling, which sort of pissed me off. this time as i fell i saw a white light that seemed to get brighter the the farther i fell. i figured this was my version of the tunnel with the bright light at the end, and although i felt i was still needed i felt satisfied with dying like this.

Suddenly the white light got really bright and i found myself floating in a bright endless expanse that fluctuated with colored every few moments. there was nothing there at all when i moved myself upright and looked around, but i couldn't feel scared or anxious i just felt calm.

" So i finally get to meet the hero whose come to save me." a voiced said as everything began to glow so bright i couldn't see.


	15. The Spirit of Natura

Dark: this was one of the more annoying and weird experiences....

Shadow: oh when you met Prima you mean

Dark: yeah...i really should have gave her a better name.

Shadow: you know the last time i went back home she came asking for you

Dark: * looks a shadow strangely* say what now.

Shadow: she asked for you, by name. she asked how you were doing and such.

Dark: what the fuck?

Shadow: hey she acts human enough, maybe she like's you.

Dark: that would be too weird, she's a frickin' planet for Christ's sake

Shadow: spirit of a planet.

Dark: whatever, still weird.

Shadow: I'd be cool with it.

Dark: that coming from the guy with the crazy girlfriend.

Vixen:*walks in* who's crazy

Dark: Aww, damn...

Shadow: and i think i'll be going * walks away*

Vixen: * cracks knuckles* you want to repeat what you just said.

Dark: that depends, would i be repeating aww damn, or that coming from thing guy with the crazy girlfriend.

vixen: the latter * starts fighting dark*

**---5 minutes later---**

Shadow: *comes back* hey dark where's vixen

Dark: *points to vixen lying on the floor unconscious*

Shadow: what the fuck did you do!

Dark: and before some other shit starts, enjoy the story people.

Shadow: Dark i'm going to kill yo-

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Spirit of Natura

I felt myself touched down on something solid as the light began to fade. I looked down and found myself standing on an Aztecan pyramid that marked what seemed to be the very center of the area I'd fallen into. The pyramid was surrounded by a column light that seemed to stretch farther than I could see into the air.

" What the hell." I said slowly as I took a step forward, as I did the column of light around the pyramid intensified and spread out at a startling speed into the distance.

As the column spread a grassy field appeared around the pyramid that gave way to a thinly wooded forest, in the farthest distances from the pyramid mountains lined the horizon.

" Again, what the hell?" I said looking around at the landscape that came from nowhere.

" What's wrong…don't you like it. I can change it if you like." The same voice from earlier said to me.

" That's not it, I'm just not used to an area just appearing out of nothing." I said uneasily looking around.

" You would rather me be visible while you talk to me right?" the voice asked again with a near inaudible giggle.

" Please and thank you."

" All right then." The voice said as a strong breeze blew.

I took a sep back as another small column of light appeared in front of me with a small dark green orb at it's center. The orb then expanded a took the shape of the silhouette f a woman wearing an evening gown with a thin scarf that went from one hand around her neck and down to the other hand. The column of light slowly began to fall, bringing human traits to the silhouette as it did.

The woman had light colored skin that almost seemed to glow, and her gown was a pale green spring and the scarf, which was held in place by gold rings on both her middle fingers, was white. The woman had long wavy dark green hair with two short braids that rimmed her face, on each side of her head three flowers, that decreased in size from top to bottom, grew in her hair.

Her eyes were a viridian color and she was just about an inch and a half taller than me. The air around her carried a soothing smell that would relax even the most tense of people. I took another step back, surprised by the entrance.

" I my name is Prima Gaia Natura, but you already knew that. You were the one who dreamt me up after all." The woman said with a slight bow, smiling at me. Her voice

" Oh yeah, that explains the weird place…Err, no offense." I said as everything fell into place in my mind.

" None taken, I can understand that the experience is strange the first time around, especially for someone who's not originally from here." She said laughing softly.

" You seem very…human for the spirit of a planet…not excessively serious or angry as the case usually is." I said as I walked to the steps of the pyramid.

" Why would I have to be angry or serious, the children of my planet take such good care of me, well aside from a few troublesome instances but I'm unpolluted in nearly every part single one of my continents. The way you made things I couldn't want any better." Prima said as she walked up next to me. " you know it's very difficult to refer to yourself and the planet when you are one in the same and yet separate at the same time."

" I can imagine… and you say all that but there's a war going on that may very well destroy you. And it's all my fault." I said grimly sitting down.

" It's not your fault, no one believes that. And who cares if Nightmare tries to destroy me, he has to kill you first and no one's going to let that happen." Prima said in an annoyed tone, flicking me in the forehead.

" Son of bitch, that hurt!" I said rubbing my forehead, " damn you're strong…."

" Oh, sorry… this planet has a strong life force, and as long as that stay strong I do too." She explained kneeling down and resting her hand on top of my head, " better?"

" What do you- uh, much actually…huh?" I said in surprise.

" Good, I don't like causing injury to anyone or anything. If things were different I'd probably join the fight against Nightmare personally."

" What's it like being the spirit of the planet?" I asked randomly, staring out into the distance.

" It's nothing for the faint of heart but if you can handle it it's very fun, every tree and plants is your eyes and ears. You can make the most beautiful things happen, even protect a single person or animals from harm. I know what everyone feels and can change the weather in the area according to whom I feel sorry for, there's a lot to it." Prima explained looking to the sky.

" Can you bring the dead back to life…or restore someone's mind?" I said remembering my promise to Sophita.

"Huh…I'm not sure about the mind part, but I have some sway in life and death." Prima replied, folding her arms as she thought, " but if I can do that I should be able to restore a mind as well. Why did you have something in mind?"

" I made a promise to someone and I really want follow through on it." I said standing up, " so can people come and leave here as they please, I mean the place we're in now?"

"If they can manage it they can. But most can't, why do you ask."

" Because I think Nightmare sent a few of his friends to come play." I replied as I pointed to a stream of black smoke that spilt into four streams that rapidly made their way to the ground.

" Oh no, he's going through with that plan already. I knew he'd attack me at some point but this is a bit early."

" Don't worry I'll take care of them." I said, looking around as I realized I'd lost Mira, " wait a minute where's my sword?"

" Ah, you left it in the desert remember?" Prima said in a concerned tone.

" Damn I did leave her didn't I…oh well, I guess this just makes things a little harder." I said as I moved to rune down the steps of the pyramid.

" Wait!" prima said suddenly appearing in front of me, without warning she kissed me on the lips.

I stayed there for a moment, stunned, and then I felt numb. My eyes began to roll back and my body shook as I felt her energy rush into my body. When she finally broke the kiss I fell stumbled back like I'd a man who'd been drinking for one week straight.

" What the heck was that?" I asked once I came back to my senses.

" I thought I'd give you some of my power as a thank you for going out to protect me, the kiss was a gift." Prima said softly, blushing a little.

"Eh, you…but.." I stammered before shaking my head, " you should really switch that sentence around a bit it'd make a lot more sense, but thanks."

I stepped past prima and made my way down the pyramid and into the forest. It was quite the strange experience; with the energy prima had lent me I could sense movement and sound in the earth and air much more easily. Information poured into my head as I felt trees sense things passing by, the grass sensing the pressure of a hoof compressing it.

I filtered through the information and found my first target a ran through the trees until I came upon a ghastly woman who hovered in the air and wore a tattered dress. Her white hair hid her face as I circled around behind her, for the most part it appeared as though  
I'd have an easy kill. As I passed behind a tree she was gone and I ran to where she had been, wondering how she could've disappeared so quickly. Sensing something I spun around and was face to face with the woman, her face looked like it had been torched or sprayed with acid but the area around her mouth was untouched.

" Damn you're an ugly bi-" I started before the woman opened her mouth and let out an earsplitting pulsing scream that threw me against a tree. _"Sonic screams, and an ugly face, definitely calling these thing banshees."_

The banshee screamed again causing me to cover my ears. Every pulsation in the tone of her scream caused a slight burst in the strength of then sonic blast, then the banshee stopped and released another more powerful scream that blew me through the trunk of the tree behind me. Not waiting t be struck again I rolled to my feet and fired a hex cannon at the banshee, knocking it into a tree.

"What the hell?" I said as the banshee slowly began to stand again, " Damn he made his lackeys stronger…"

Bringing myself out of my thoughts I fired another hex cannon on the banshee, walking up to it as I did. I held up my attack until the banshee's body was reduced to a scorch mark on the ground. Satisfied I went after me next target, but even with my sense enhanced by every living plant and tree around I couldn't pinpoint it. Only some scattered, but somewhat close together, disturbances in the air.

As I got closer to the disturbance in the air I heard a loud buzzing sound. Curious I slowed my pace and looked around, before me thousand of tiny insects were flying towards Prima's pyramid.

I took a step forward and suddenly the swarm of insect came together in the form of a man and attacked me, it's arm taking the shape of a hammer as it struck me in the face. I flew back and hit the ground hard, sliding across the ground a bit.

" Great a swarm of bugs with super strength, and can mold its arm into blunt objects. How much better could it get?" I said to myself as I stood up.

The swarm came after me again, it's arm in the shape of a club, I avoided it's strike a tried to punch it by my fist went straight through. When I pulled it back out some of the insects were on my arm burrowing into my skin.

" Oh no you don't!" I said as heated up my hands with energy.

The heat scared the insects back into the swarm, knowing physical attack would work I fired a hex cannon at the swarm. My attack blew a hole in the swarm but didn't seem to do anything serious, and then I was put back on the defensive as the swarm began attacking me again.

" Okay, hex cannon: doesn't work, Physical attacks: don't work and get the bugs on me…damn that means dark impact is out too." I thought as I dodged strikes from the swarm's arm, which was in the shape of an axe. " Wait a minute dark energy…all right, I have a plan."

I did a back flip to put some distance between the swarm and myself and focused dark energy into the palm of my right hand while keeping the swarm at a distance with weak hex cannon shots from my left hand. I then formed the energy into a large sphere about half my size. I threw the sphere toward the swarm and it scattered and let it pass by, then reformed again. I flashed a confident smile as the sphere stopped moving just behind the swarm.

" Sorry bug boy but my void sphere isn't a direct attack." I said as the sphere expanded suddenly and enveloped the swarm before disappearing. " Just as good as a bug zapper and a lot less mess."

I suddenly shock hit me as I sensed that my last two enemies were both just outside the field that surrounded the pyramid. Cursing myself I shot into the air and flew straight for the pyramid.

I was there in seconds, and just in time as a knight in dark blue armor whose helmet what surrounded by a blue flame. He rode atop a dark blue horse that looked somewhat zombified, had six legs, four in front two in back, and had a mane and tail of red flames.

" _Wow…wasn't expecting that…."_ I thought as the knight stepped down from the horse. _" Hey it's a night-mare and a fright knight. That was to easy to come up with."_

The snorting of the horse as it reared back on its hind legs broke me away from my thoughts. I dove out of the ways as the horse charged at me and almost rolled into the knights sword as he brought it down beside me.

" My master would very much like to see your head in my arms when I return to him." The fright knight said as he pulled his sword from the earth.

" You can talk?" I said before teleporting into the air, " Finally something that wants to kill me that doesn't come across as a freaking idiot beforehand." I added in a happy tone.

" Get him my mount, I'll kill the spirit." The knight ordered as he started up the side of the pyramid.

With a deep neigh the night-mare suddenly took to the air, its hooves aflame, and charged toward me. I spun out of the way as the horse came around again and spewed a jet of flame in my face. I reeled back from the sudden attack clutching my burning face, I shook away the flames and glanced up just as the night-mare reared up and brought its hooves down over my head. I shot to the ground like an arrow crashed down, making a small crater.

" In a just world the knight would've been the one getting kicked in the head." I said as I sat up in the crater, " Prima!"

I shot out of the crater up the pyramid toward the knight, slamming him against the stairs of the pyramid. Then I quickly flipped onto the stairs and kicked him back down to the ground. The night-mare passed overhead spewing flames toward me, surrounding me with a ring of fire.

" _Damn it I need a weapon…"_ I though suddenly remembering my fight with DesertRose, " hell, if wolverine can pops a few blades out of his arm why can't I…"

I straightened my right arm as I recalled what I felt when I summoned up the tentacles out of my arm, this time hoping for a blade of some sort this time. I could feel it as a large hunk of steel formed under my skin on the underside of my arm. I felt a small pain flare up as the blade exited my skin just below my wrist.

I glanced at the new blade that extended from my arm and smiled. The night-mare came around again and I flew into the air to meet it. As the mare charged toward me I teleported above it and landed on it's back. The beast bucked wilding, trying to throw me off. I swung myself around and stab my blade into the mare's chest cavity. The night-mare neighed in pain and continued to buck, this time succeeding in throwing me off.

The beast reared up to kick me again and I stabbed my blade into the base of its throat and sliced up through its jaw. The beast fell back and plummeted to the side of the pyramid below with a loud cracking thud. I heard an annoyed grunt as the Fright night turned and saw his fallen mount, already past the point where I first attacked him.

" You will pay for that, you persistent fool." The knight said pointing his sword at me.

" Whatever…" I said as I shots a tentacle from my left hand and wrapped it around the knight's waist, " I forgot my wallet anyway."

I swung the knight into the air them released him toward the ground below, sending him bouncing across the ground. Landing beside him I retracted the tentacle back into my left arm and it disappeared. The knight growled as he stood again seemingly unharmed, never taking his hand off his blade. I motioned for him to come and he charged at me, swinging his blade full force.

I blocked his strike with my blade, surprised at the knight's strength. I repelled him and struck but the Knight blocked it, any way I came at him he was able to block.

"You know for one of Nightmare's lackeys your pretty good." I said honestly impressed

" Save your remarks for someone who cares." The knight said angrily as knocked me off balance and drove the arm blade into the ground. He immediately followed up with and overhead blow, but I popped a blade out of my left arm and deflected the blow. As he came again I retracted both blades and rolled back, I slid a blade out of the bottom of each of my heels as he swing his blade and deflected his strike. Pushing myself off the ground with my arms I swung my feet around and sliced through the armor on the knights legs, causing him to fall to his knees. If I hadn't done what I did next, no one would have convinced me that I could.

I did a handstand and turned my back bending my legs and stabbing the blades of my feet through the knights shoulder plates and into his shoulders. Then I straightened myself on top of him and immediately bent back to the ground launching the Knight through the air and to the ground with a loud metallic thud..

" Holy crap…when did I get that flexible?" I said in shock as I stood up and retreated the blades into my feet.

" You haven't won yet…" The Knight groaned as he got to his feet, his helmet falling off and revealing a skull white skull within the flames.

" Oh yes I have." I thought running toward the Knight, before he could react I punched his skull and broke it.

The knights body fell limp and hit the ground, thinking I was done I turned and started walking toward the pyramid. Then I suddenly sense the pressure lift off of two patches of grass along with a disturbance in the air. Annoyed I turned around to see black smoke forming into the headless skeleton of a centaur with two blades in it's hands.

" a headless centaur skeleton…" I said as the skeleton began to move and suddenly became engulfed in green flames, " and it's flaming…you know what, fuck it let's just get this over with.

The centaur charged at me and I rolled out of the way, firing a hex cannon at it. I hit the beast perfectly but when I let up and my attack I stood as if I had done nothing, it came at me again and I popped a blade out of both my arms to block it's strike. We clashed blades but the beast kept running, slowly pushing me back. I managed to jump back and lashed out at the centaur slicing off a few ribs, which didn't affect the creature at all.

It before I could get up a block after my attack the centaur charged and stabbed one of its swords into my right shoulder, and it continued to drag me until it pinned me to a tree.

" Son of a bitch…" I said through clenched teeth as I grabbed at the centaurs sword in my shoulder.

Then with a nearly sadistic precision the centaur slowly drove it's of sword into my stomach, suddenly jerking it forward and lodging it in the tree. I cursed silently as the creature took my left and grabbed the blade, ripping it out of my arm. I cursed silently at the pain, feeling a little desperate. I clenched my teeth together as I began out focus dark energy within myself, I breathing began to quicken and grew more heavy as the centaur raised it's my blade up to my chest.

" _It's now or never …" _I though as I let the dark energy loose creating a black pillar that stretch high into the air and enveloped both me and the centaur.

When the pillar disappeared only I remained, still pinned to the tree. Prima appeared in front of me, slightly teary eyed, and grabbed the blades in my stomach. She began to draw it out slowly and I knew she was trying to be gentle but in truth it just lengthened the time I felt pain.

" Screw being gentle, just rip the damn thing out." I groaned angrily.

With a hesitant nod she tightened her grip on the sword and removed the rest of it with a quick yank, my eyes widen from the pain and my strength seemed to leave me. Prima grabbed the other blade and pulled it out just as quickly, I collapsed into prima's arm and after a moment or two I lost consciousness. the last thing I heard was a sincere thank you.


	16. infection

Infection

" Ugh…that crap hurt." I groaned as I awoke slowly.

As I opened my eyes I found that I was in my tent from shadow's camp. I sat up in surprise and looked beside my bed, Mira was braced up against one of the posts that held the tent up.

" Mira? How the hell did I get back to camp?" I asked, stretching as I dragged myself off the bed.

" I'm not sure, all I know is that you disappeared for a long time and left me in the desert.

What happened to you?" Mira asked in my head.

" I met the spirit of Natura…we talked, she kissed me, I fought to protect her, got pinned to a tree by a headless skeleton of a centaur, then I passed out."

" You certainly had a fun time then." Mira said with a laugh.

" Yeah, you keep laughing and I'll leave you somewhere to rust…" I muttered as I picked her up.

" You wouldn't dare…would you?" Mira asked in a worried tone that made me laugh, " Hey, answer me!"

I walked outside and went to shadow's tent. When I got there he was talking to Rin so I waited patiently until she left.

" Dark, you're finally up. You're been asleep since we found you in the desert last night." Shadow said as I passed Rin on my way in.

" Yeah, so I take it things were looking good when we came back." I asked glancing around the tent.

" Well Crystal city needs a lot of repair work and we lost five men to the brutes despite my best efforts, but that's war so we'll consider it a nice win." Shadow sighed as he walked out of his tent and turned to me, " Vixen is coming here today…she's making me go on a date with her, I'm sure you know what would happen if I refuse."

" Chaos spark to the face if your lucky." I replied chuckling softly, " or she might just cut your balls off, who knows?"

" Don't even joke about that, she tried once." Shadow said as he shuddered," that was the first moment of my life where I nearly cried out of fear."

" Damn… my bad for making her crazy dude."

" Making who crazy?" A woman said as she walked up behind shadow.

She was a pale woman with dark wearing a skirt and a sleeveless white shirt underneath a sleeveless black vest, on her left shoulder and right cheek were a large and small spider web tattoos respectively. Her eyes were purple and she was just shorter than shadow.

" Uh… no one, no one. How are you doing Vix?" shadow said spinning around and giving her a hug, " oh, this is Dark. He's my current second in command. I'm leaving him in charge while we're gone."

" You're what now?" I blurted out grabbing shadow by the arm.

" Can you do it please I really want to spend some time alone with shadow." Vixen begged.

" _I better hear about vixen have a baby shower a few months after this…"_ I thought realizing I had no reason not to do it, " yeah sure…"

" Thanks, we appreciate it." Shadow said with an uneasy smile.

" What's that look for shadow?" vixen asked her eyes flashing red and black as she pulled shadow toward her self and squeezed his arm, " Not having any ideas of slipping away later I hope."

" Breaking the arm vixen…" shadow said mouthing curses.

" Oh sorry." She said as she released shadow's arm, " but run off while we're on this date and I will break something a lot more important."

A chill ran down my spine when she made her threat, I knew all to well what she meant and that even with shadow's strength she'd find a way to do it.

" I'm going to go now…." I said nervously slipping past them.

I knew it was the best thing to do, leaving those two alone. Feeling somewhat bored I decided to go to the training area of the camp and watch the soldiers. Many were training with swords and spears and a small group with bows and arrows, one woman in particular caught my eye. She was in the group training with bows and she looked nearly identical to Aya, only the streak in her hair was red and her outfit was blue. Intrigued, in more way than one I'll admit, I went up to the girl and stood behind her as she practiced.

She was really good, every arrow she fired hit dead center in her target and the speed at which she fired them was nothing to laugh at. But it seemed that chance decided she was doing to well in her practice when she sneezed while loosing an arrow, causing it to miss the target and imbed itself in the shield of an unsuspecting soldier.

" Hey, watch it!" the soldier called to her.

" Oh, sorry!" she called back, turning to me as I began laughing. " What's so funny?"

" You were doing so well, but when you mess up you really mess up." I said extending a hand, " I'm dark, shadow's second in command. I'm in charge while he's out today."

" Oh, I'm Semira." The girl said shaking my hand, " Nice to meet you, so what's it like being shadow's second in command."

" Uh…really easy so far actually. Hopefully being in charge for a day won't upset the trend." I said with an uneasy smile, rubbing the back of my neck. " so how long have you been a part of this camp anyway?"

" The whole time, shadow just doesn't ever choose me for any battles." Semira shot back folding her arms, " It's like he's afraid I'll get hurt."

" Well I can understand that, I mean when you're sending people into battle you tend to hold back the younger one's." I pointed out

" I'm the same age as you."

" Ah but I'm sturdy, and who knows maybe I'm a better fighter." I joked, chuckling softly.

" You want to find out?" Semira challenged backing away.

" Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked raising an eyebrow, " I'm not going to go too easy on you just because you look good."

" Don't you mean because I'm a girl."

" Not at all." I said walking into the middle of the training field. " Come on now, don't go chickening out on me."

With a confident smile Semira stood across from me, quickly stringing and firing three arrows in quick succession. Using Mira I quickly deflected the arrows; narrowing her eyes Semira quickly fired three more. With a smile I deflected the first two again but to my surprise the third grazed my cheek.

" Hmm, pretty good. I didn't think you'd get me at long range." I thought touching my cheek, wiping away the blood, " now let's see how you fare against an attack I just thought up."

I aimed my right hand at her, my hand positioned like I was holding a gun with my middle and index fingers extended. A dark aura appeared around my hand as I did so, but, like a true fighter, Semira didn't just sit back and let me prepare my attack. She fired another set of arrows at me, which I narrowly avoided.

" Psycho trigger…" I thought as I took aim again and fired several bullet sized metal spikes coated in dark energy, which, for reason unknown, sounded like real gunshots.

Semira dove out of the way as the spikes embedded themselves into the dirt, quickly rolling to her feet. Then without warning she fired an arrow at my feet, which I avoided by jumping back. Semira smiled as the arrow exploded creating a small cloud of smoke, she quickly followed up with a few more and I found myself running around trying to avoid the explosions. Then the explosions suddenly stopped as Semira ran out of arrows.

" Ha, you just lost your weapon. Now what?" I asked with a smile.

" What` you think I don't know how to defend myself without my bow and arrows." Semira said as she charged toward me and leapt into the air. Spinning around she kicked me in the chest, almost knocking me off my feet as I stumbled back.

I dropped Mira, to make things fair blocking as Semira followed up with a punch. She dodged as I swing at her; back flipping away from me she put distance between us as she created two daggers of flames in her hands.

" Ah, so you're a little pyro, that explains the exploding arrows." I said calling Mira back to my hand and transforming her into a staff.

Semira charged at me and swung low with Mira, she flipped over my strike and spun around with her daggers. Hopping backward I avoided her daggers and she followed up wit a ball of fire that caught me in the chest. The force of the attack threw me back and Semira kept on me, before I could even stand again I had to dodge her heel as it came down on me. I rolled back to my feet and threw a punch stopping as I came within an inch of her face.

"Aw, can't punch a woman in the face… that's just wrong…" I said annoyed as I lowered my fist.

" Well I can hit you just fine." Semira said as she threw a hook. I immediately blocked it and delivered a palm strike to her chest, sending her through the air to the ground.

" I said I couldn't hit you in the face, everywhere else is fair game." I pointed out as Semira stood again.

Before she could respond I leapt toward her with a downward strike, she jumped onto the air as my fist crashed down where she stood. I looked up at her surprised to see her with a bow and arrow made of flames.

" Morning star!" she called out as the head of the arrow turned into a huge sphere and she fired it at me.

With nowhere to go at such a close distance I took the attack, it created a sizeable explosion and left me on a knee in a small crater. Small flames burned around me when Semira stepped up to the edge of the crater with a superior smile.

"I guess this means I won?" she asked with a laugh.

"Yeah I guess so." I said laughing as well.

After that I hung out Semira for the rest of the day. We roamed the camp talking about anything that came to our mind, which is usually a bad thing to try with me considering my mind can be a blank slate sometimes. But with Semira I never had a blank moment. By the time the sun began to set we both ran out of thing to talk about and we decided to take a walk outside of camp.

" You know you really are a good person to hang out with." I said as we walked into the forest that surrounded camp.

" Thanks, I could say the same about you." Semira replied with a smile.

" So, how did you end up with your powers anyway?"

" I'm not sure…I fell asleep while hunting in the woods one day and when I woke up I could make and control flames." Semira answered uneasily.

"Really…that's-" I paused as I sensed something moving around in the trees around us.

" What's wrong?" Semira asked as I looked around.

" Semira, go back to camp…Now." I said turning to her.

" What, you can't order me around."

" Yes I can, now go!" I ordered pushing her away.

" So much for being a nice guy to hang out with." Semira muttered as she walked away.

I held Mira at the ready as Semira faded from sight, angry at the fact that I had to send Semira off like that. But my anger was short live as a group of hellhounds stepped out of the trees behind me.

" Back to the basics huh? I guess nightmare is slacking a bit." I said with a smile as I turned to them.

" Don't be so sure, look." Mira warned as two fright knights stepped out as well followed by even more hellhounds.

"Oh…well then…" I said uneasily.

" Get him!' the knights said together.

With a loud snarl the hellhounds charged at me, I cut down the first few and spun out of the way as another tried to pounce on me. I sliced through the beast's spine then turned my attention back to the others. Without warning a sword came down on me and I blocked with Mira.

" Our master has plans for you, just give in!" the knight said fiercely.

" Not a chance!" I shouted defiantly as a popped a blade out of my free arm.

Just as I went to stab the knight a hellhound pounced on me, knocking me to the floor. I teleported into a near by tree as the other knight tried to skewer me to the ground.

" Ok this one's going to be a bit tough with those guys around…" I thought, flipping out of the tree as a hellhound leapt onto the branch I was on.

With a quick spin I toppled the tree, kicking it so it would fall on top of the other hellhounds. Before the tree could hit the ground the two fright-knights slashed the tree in half, sparing a few hellhounds. The remaining beasts came at me all at once, seven of them.

I cut down the first two as they came within reach; the remaining five however circled me like sharks. I dropped Mira as two of them jumped at me from opposite sides, spinning around I popped out my arm blades and skewered them both. Their limp bodies falling to the ground like rag dolls. One of the knights came to as sit the remaining three hellhounds, jumping over them and bringing his sword down over my head. I blocked with one of my arm blades as one of the hellhounds seized the opportunity to leap at me. Seeing it out of the corner of my eye I repelled the knight and formed a spike from my elbow, piercing through the hellhound's jaw.

I retracted my right arm blade and replaced it with a long sharp spike, leaping forward I plunged it through the Knights helmet. The Knight fell with a dying groan as I removed the spike and fired two psycho trigger shots into the heads of the last two hellhounds.

" Weaklings! I will not go down so easily." The last Knight said angrily as I turned to him.

" Dude…" I began as a shot a steel tentacle from my arm through the Knights helmet and skull, " STFU"

With an exasperated sigh I took a looked around, pleased that the attack hadn't caused much damage to the forest. I was ready to walk away when I sensed two more potential enemies hiding in the trees.

" It seems you've become quite the fighter since I saved you…" a familiar voiced called out behind me.

"Aya?" I thought tensing up, knowing what was likely to come.

I turned around to see Aya stepping out fro the trees, her eyes were somewhat vacant and her veins were black and were visible through her skin. Then a man stepped up behind her dressed in a sort of soul reaper outfit. I recognized him as Sosonoskei, a user of blades and wind-based magic.

" What do you two want?" I asked calling Mira to my hand.

" That any way to greet the woman who saved you when you were nothing but a spineless weakling?" Aya asked narrowing her eyes at me as she took her bow off her back.

"Enough mind games Aya the master gave us a mission." Sosonoskei said flatly as he drew two identical rose red katanas.

" Do you think I took my bow out for nothing?" Aya said defiantly as she notched an arrow and fired it at me.

I moved to deflect the arrow with Mira but as the arrow touched Mira's blade it flashed blue and both my arm and Mira were encased in ice. I quickly broke the ice off with my free hand, and then from beneath me a whirlwind formed and threw me into the air. Aya shot another arrow at me and it struck me in the shoulder, then ice started to spread out from the wound. I pulled out the arrow just as a blade out wind cut into my chest, knocking me out of the air. I hit the ground hard, ignoring the wound in my chest I tore out Aya's arrow. I then got up and looked around, Sosonoskei and Aya were headed toward me.

Not being one to sit around and get beat up, I charged at them. Sosonoskei raised a hand and a powerful gust of wind knocked me into a tree, then Aya followed up with an arrow that froze me in place.

" I expected a bit more of a fight from him." Aya said with an evil chuckle, "a little unsure of what to do because I'm here maybe."

"What the hell do you want!' I shouted angrily as I tried to break free.

" Nothing much." Sosonoskei said snapping his fingers, the their fallen lackeys collapsed into black smoke and began to float toward me. " Master Nightmare just want to see how good his corrupting skills have gotten."

" What?" I shot back as the smoke enveloped me.

I held my breath, but Aya and Sosonoskei were in no rush. When I could hold m breath any longer I took a breath and the smoke forced it's way into my lungs. Somehow the smoke held my mouth open and continued to enter my body, slowly forcing me to pass out.

" Dark, Hang on!" I heard shadows voice call out, followed by the sound and feel of a nearby explosion the broke the ice that held me to the tree.

The black smoke dissipated, Aya and Sosonoskei were gone, and Shadow, Vixen and Semira surrounded me, all of them looking somewhat worried.

" You okay?" Semira asked as I coughed hard.

" I think so…" I said as my coughing eased up, "I think nightmare sent those two to try and make me into one of his slaves…"

" Good thing we came back when we did." Vixen said turning away, " Though I'm still not happy about it."

" We'll talk about it later, but hey I was right something bad was about to happen." Shadows said glancing at vixen, " Anyway, let's get you back to the camp. I'll have Rin look you over."

" Yeah… at least they didn't get to mess with my head." I said standing up.

Everyone nodded in agreement as we walked back toward camp. All of us sure that my little rescue prevented Aya and Sosonoskei from completing their mission, sadly, we were all wrong…


	17. Nightmare

Dark: *Yawns*

Shadow: what you have nothing to say?

Dark: not really...

shadow: that doesn't happen everyday...well shouldn't you at least give the a heads up?

Dark: about wha-...oh yeah, i should.

Shadow: then do it.

Dark: don't rush me damn it! anyway, everyone reading this i regret to inform you that the combination of school coupled with a suddenly lack of available internet access in my home will keep me from updating as often as i like.

Shadow: it's a terrible thing when i writer can't get his shit out to those who want it.

Dark: damn right it is...well enjoy the chapter people.

* * *

prelude to nightmare

A few days after the incident with Aya and Sosonoskei things began to go downhill. My nights were plagued by horrible visions of hundreds dying at my hand, and I was enjoying every moment of it. Then someone would appear to stop killing me in some horrific manner, a different way every dream. I guess I don't have to say that after the first week I just stopped sleeping all together.

Then I began to see threatening figures everywhere I turned, they were never there but I occasionally struck out at them. There was several times where I nearly hit a passing soldier. It didn't stop there I slowly began to lose control over my anger, there was an incident where I was training with Semira. After a while of her shooting her flaming arrows at me I fired a hex cannon at her, I just barely missed and she stopped talking to me for a while after.

After that it was a general loss of control, accidentally attacking people, saying thing I wouldn't normally say, trashing people's tents. I continued to get worse and worse until one day flipped on Rin, I can't even remember what I did to her…all I do remember is shadow pulling me away from her as other came to rush her to the medical tent. That was the last straw for me, and the next day I went straight to shadow to tell him I was leaving.

"Shadow we need to talk." I said forcefully as I stormed into his tent.

" Dark, I was hoping you'd show up…you're right we do need to talk." Shadow said standing up slowly.

" Well make I quick because I'm out, I'm leaving." I said firmly my head beginning to pound.

" Leave? Why?" Shadow asked surprised.

" Why, I've been nothing but a ticking time bomb for the last month! I'm a threat to everyone around me right now!" I yelled angrily, resisting the urge to punch Shadow in the face.

"Dark calm down, your better off here. We can help you, we figured out what they did to you that night." Shadow said grabbing my shoulder.

" Yeah well too little, too late." I said as I pulled away from him, " I'm not risking another incident like the one with Rin."

" That wasn't your fault and you know it, that smoke you took in did something to your head, all we have to do is get it out of you and you'll be fine." Shadow said as he stood in front of the entrance to his tent, " I'm not letting you leave without us trying to help you."

" and what makes you think you can stop me from leaving now? Anyone who gets close enough to me to try and help is just going to be another target for one of my outbursts, I'm leaving." I said sternly, shadow still standing in my way, " Make this easy…move."

" You know I noticed that any time you're get angry or excited your eyes turn black. Explain to me why they're red now?" Shadow asked, ignoring me.

" I said move!" I ordered blowing shadow out of the tent with a gravitational burst.

I ran out of the tent as fast as I could turn to the shortest way out of camp. Shadow came up behind me and passed me, stopping a few yards in front of me to block my path. With an annoyed growl I readied a dark impact, then I as came upon shadow Jin and Shou jumped out of nowhere and pinned me to the ground.

" Sorry about this man but it's for your own good." Jin said holding my head down.

" We're just trying to help, stay down." Shou advised.

" You two should really get off of me…" I warned my head feeling like it was going to explode.

" Sorry about this…" shadow said as he aimed a hand at me. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a sudden feeling of pain, and then I passed out.

I woke up some time later in a tent I'd never seen before, it was dark and realizing I was strapped to a table really didn't help me calm down. Some candles burned in a circle around the table illuminating only the area I was in.

" Ah, so you've woken up have you?" said a classic witch's voice.

" What the fuck is a witch doing in shadow's camp?" I said angrily, my head still pounding like a drum. Somewhere I felt relief, though I knew I wasn't in my normal state of mind I could at least think.

" My boy not every fight has only good players on the side of light. Besides for your situation a little dark magic is necessary." The witch said coughing as she stepped into the light so I could see her. Surprisingly she was rather young, about fourteen by her looks, and when she spoke again her voice matched her looks. " Crap, why's it so hard to sound creepy and respectable?"

She pulled out a fancy and yet creepy looking wand, which looked like a bubble wand honestly, and with a wave the table hovered in the air, tipping forward so I was facing her.

" What the heck am I here for you little bitch, get me off this table!" I asked angrily.

" Hey, watch your mouth when you speak t the mighty Christi…damn my parents giving me such a cute name." She replied turning away as she complained.

" I heard that Christi!" a feminine voice called from outside of the tent.

" Mom! Not while I'm doing work for Shadow!" Christi shot back in an extremely annoyed tone, a bubble forming on her wand.

" Look Christi, be a good little girl and let me go, and maybe your mother won't have to go to her daughter's funeral." I threatened with an evil smile.

"You shut up!" Christi shot back at me swinging the bubble on her wand toward me.

It came at me faster than expected and hit me in the stomach like a cannonball, driving the air from my lungs.

" Much better?" Christi maid with a grin as I tried to catch my breath, " Now I can get to work.

She waved her wand again and I was held tight to the table by her magic. She muttered something I couldn't here and her wand began to crackle with dark purple electricity. I suddenly felt an intense pain course through my body; it felt like something was attacking every individual cell of my body. Christi watched me writhe in pain with a sadistic smile, she was without a doubt enjoying my pain. My only conclusion…Shadow has a thing for sadistic women, and I didn't plan on that. Ever.

After what seemed like hours of pain another felling arose as black smoke began to pour out of my mouth. It felt like a snake was crawling out of my mouth and its scales were cutting the lining of my throat as it did.

When the last of the smoke finally left my body my body fell limp, the pain subsided and all I could do was breathe and cough up black fluid that the smoke had left in my throat on it's way up. Christi quickly chanted another spell, causing white lightning to attack this smoke causing it to dissipate.

" I'm…going to…kill you…for that.." I said through coughs.

" Hmm, I can still sense something corrupting your thoughts…" Christi said looking me over, then a smile appeared on her face. " Looks like we'll have to do it again."

My eyes widened as she began to chant her spell again, I tried desperately to free myself from the table, even attempting to teleport away but nothing worked. I was thrown into the pain of whatever extraction process shadow had her performing. But I wasn't done; when Christi finished this time she yet again said that she could still sense something that shouldn't be in me.

And the process repeated time after time. It went on for so long that Christi, who enjoyed seeing me in pain, began to get sick herself. She was afraid to repeat the process but knew she had to. But the worst part was every time she finished a round of extraction, the throbbing in my head got worse, whatever influence was affecting me got stronger.

After what seemed like days to me, Christi called it quits. At this point she was so creeped out by how long the process was taking she had lit up the entire tent. She curled up in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest.

" This isn't right…" She said, trembling violently, " This isn't supposed to happen…"

After another few minutes Shadow finally arrived in the tent, his expression instantly becoming one of worry when he saw Christi in the corner.

" oh no…" shadow said as he walked to Christi and knelt beside her. " what happened, are you okay."

" I-it's too much…I can't do it anymore…" Christi said tearing up, " I must have tried about a hundred times now, but it's not working."

" It's all right Christi…you tried." Shadow said in a comforting tone.

" More than what you did you damn asshole. What the hell were you thinking sending a kid to do a job like this?" I asked in a manic tone. " Not that I care about the little insect, I can't forgive her for putting me through that bullshit so many times."

" Snap out of it dark, you're not helping the situation." Shadow said sternly as he turned to me.

" Why would I want to? It's not my fault what happened to me, I was caught off guard. If you hadn't gone of with you're psychotic girlfriend none of this would have happened." I said laughing evilly.

"Now your pushing it, shut the hell up!" Shadow shot back angrily.

" Oh really…" As said as I pulled myself off the table, Christi's somewhat erratic state weakening her magic. With a confident smile I stepped away from the table, " How about you make me shut up?"

" I knocked you out once I can do it again!" shadow shouted as he threw a punch.

"_Heh, the fool fell for it."_ I thought as leaned to the right, avoiding shadow's punch as I popped out a spike from my right arm. Before shadow could react I drove the spike through his stomach and out his back, then I retracted the spike and struck him over the head with my left hand.. As Shadow hit the ground I regained myself enough to control my actions.

I glanced at Christi who looked as scared as a child, who just saw their parents murdered, and then I looked at what I'd done to shadow. I shook my head in disbelief and teleported out of the camp, and then I ran as fast as I could away from everyone I could hurt.

I ran clear out of the forest and kept going, the landscape around me changing from green fields of grass to a dry barren wasteland. I wasn't even really paying attention as I approached a cliff, I ran clear off the edge and fell. Not thinking clearly enough to realize I could fly, a popped a thick blade out of my arms and drove them into the side of the cliff. I jerked to a stop and hung for a second taking a deep breath, then the part of the cliff I was on gave way and fell.

I was in such a panic that I couldn't retract the blades into my arm, then at the last moment I managed to clear my head enough to teleport to the ground far away from the side of the cliff.

" That was close…" I said to myself as I surveyed my current surroundings. From what it looked like I was in what remained of a long dried out lake, and a big one at that.

Just as I felt I could breathe a sigh of relief a black cloud appeared out of nowhere above me. Aya And Sosonoskei dropped down from the cloud and landed in front of me, on the wall opposite me DesertRose rode his scorpion into the lakebed. Then the cloud itself shrank down to the size of a man and came down in front of me, it centralized around a plain black mask I took a step back as my head began to hurt worse than ever before, bringing me down to a knee.

" Nightmare, right?" I said through my teeth.

" Correct, and this is what happens when you become a thorn in my side." He said, his voice cold and heartless.

" Wow, I'm a thorn, I must be doing my fucking job then." I said sarcastically.

" I admire your spirit, I hadn't expected your mind to hold up against my influence." He said, apparently looking me over, "I came here to eradicate every living thing on this planet, and again you and shadow should be commended for not making it easy for this long. By now I've usually sought out the next dream to destroy."

" why the hell are you complimenting us for fighting you?" I asked, honestly interested.

" You in particular seem to actually be a real threat to my plans…but not yet. So I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen." Nightmare answered, ignoring me.

" Bitch, just try it." I said popping out a blade from both of my arms and lunging at him.

To my surprise I passed through him, and behind him the others were ready to strike.

" let's finish him." Nightmare said as his smoke wrapped around me and threw me to them.

Aya struck first with an arrow, encasing me in ice, then D.R. follow up by lifting a giant stone from the ground and throwing it at me. He hit spot on freeing me fro the ice as well as knocking me toward Sosonoskei, but I was ready. As I expect Sosonoskei launched a wind blade at me, a stopped myself in the air and fired a hex cannon at him. His attack cut mine in half causing it to strike on either side of him and creating and explosion the shrouded him in smoke.

As I touched down on the ground I saw D.R. out of the corner of my eye as he pulled his sword off his back and stabbed it into the ground sending a crack through the ground past me. I leapt to the side as the crack widened to become a huge bottomless trench. Not wanting to let him get his sword out of the ground I shot a few tentacles out of my arm toward him. But he'd fallen for that before and jumped back as they stabbed into the ground where he stood. Determined to stay alive I didn't give up, I sent the tentacles through the ground. Bringing them up under him I wrapped them around his legs and slammed him into the ground.

An arrow struck me in the back, creating a small patch of ice that began to spread outward. I spun around and took aim at Aya; I fired a barrage of psycho trigger shots at her, which she dove out of the way of. I didn't let up I kept shooting just missing each time as she ran to avoid the bullets drawing closer to me as she did. When she got close enough I fired a hex cannon and blew her away.

" And what bitch, you three ain't got nothing on me." I said feeling confident.

But a reality check came when smoke wrapped around me and I went flying into a wall of jagged rocks, screaming as I was dragged around them. Then I was thrown to the ground, and black spikes rained down on me piercing through my left shoulder, my right knee and my stomach. I yelled out in pain and reached for the one in my shoulder, I couldn't grab it but it held me firmly in place as Aya D.R and Sosonoskei all came back around stood around me.

" This is going to hurt like a bitch." I thought mouthing cruses.

The spikes disappeared as Sosonoskei created a whirlwind beneath me that held me in the air. Then Aya create shards of ice and launched a few at me and a few into the whirlwind, mercilessly impaling and slicing me around me. Not to be left out, D.R. brought a huge boulder over me and dropped it the instant Sosonoskei released the whirlwind.

I was in pain all over as I felt the boulder being knocked off of me. Then smoke picked me up again and I was held limp right in front of Nightmare.

"No dreamer can escape a this nightmare." He said before tossing me into the trench.

" damn it…" I thought as I fell. " My arms…my legs… they're broken. I think my ribs are shattered…I'm not getting out of this one too easy am I?"

I fell for a few minutes more, then time seemed to stop as a pair of giant blue glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. A giant scaly claw rose up under me and I landed on it gently.

" I've been waiting for centuries for you to finally come here." a booming voice called out, bringing me back to my senses as I was enveloped in a blue light. I instantly felt my pains lose intensity and I regained movement of my limbs again as the bones mended themselves. I stood up looking into the eyes of whoever or whatever caught me. But just as I went to thank my savior I suddenly became light headed and fainted.


	18. Time Trip

Dark: ah…one of there more interesting parts of my first journey…

Shadow: What part would that be?

Dark: like you don't know.

Shadow: oh, when you met those guys.

Dark: exactly…kind of a weird experience given the circumstances

Shadow: let's stop talking I'm sure that people don't want us ruining the chapter for them.

Dark: you have a point, but I will say this. My Spyro fanfic a threat from the nether world is officially abandoned…sorry people but expect to see a few of the characters elsewhere.

I awoke on the floor of a massive cave lit up by glowing blue crystals; I stood up and looked around. Curiously. I tried to remember where I was, or even where I was last but my mind was blank.

" Where am I?" I thought out loud.

" You're in my cave." An unfamiliar voice answered behind me. " You realize you just fainted."

" Really…does that happen often?" I asked clueless, turning around, "holy"

I stared in awe as I faced a massive white dragon, his giant blue eyes staring down at me.

" Why are you asking me if that happens often shouldn't you know that." The dragon asked me, looking confused.

"Huh, what?" I said shaking myself from my daze, " Yeah, I can't remember anything right now…do you know my name?"

"You have to be joking, how can you just suddenly forget who you are." The dragon asked in disbelief.

" Nah, I'm dead serious can't remember a thing. Amnesia I guess, although I do remember that I love dragon's…hence the staring." I said keeping my eye locked on him.

As far as I could remember he was the best looking and only dragon I'd ever seen. Scales like opals, eyes like sapphires, massive wings with a lean but muscular form. His horns sloped upward before going straight back for a few inches, and small bony studded rimmed his face.

" If you've truly forgotten then this means that it must be Nightmare's doing. I did not happen before…" the dragon said as he turned away and went deeper into the cave, " follow me, and I know what you're going to ask. My name is eon, and your is Dark oblivion."

"Cool." I replied running after him, " So does that make you a time dragon or did your parents just give you that name."

"Actually you gave me my name, most important people on this planet were named by you." Eon said matter-of- factly.

" Ooh, I sound important." I said happily as eon stopped in front of four massive crystal connected by streams of light that formed a circle.

" More important than you know. This planets survival depends solely on you right now."

" Really, what the hell can I do?" I asked, thinking he was lying.

" I was hoping you'd ask, you see I've been watching you ever since you arrived on Natura." Eon said, his eyes glowing.

Suddenly within the ring of light an image of myself appeared, I was fighting monsters and doing things I never would have thought possible. It then showed more battles against other men and women, and alongside others as well. I was impressed, though I didn't recognize anything I saw, but, I my heart I knew that you couldn't really alter something that can out of nowhere. At least to my knowledge you couldn't.

" Hey wait why am I attacking these people, I thought I was supposed to be with them or something." I asked as images of me attacking a young girl in a camp appeared.

" Your enemy did something to your mind, made you lose control of your actions." Eon explained as the scenes continued to go by. Then it came to a scene where, though outnumbered I managed to hold my own against a group of three enemies, until a fourth man made of smoke intervened and I was totally destroyed. When the images disappeared a chill ran down my spine, and I felt like I was beginning to get a headache.

" Ugh, okay I don't remember that but I think my body does." I thought as all my bones began to ache, " so if those were the bad guys how do I get strong enough to beat them."

" You can beat the three who you were fighting in that last vision, it's the fourth man you need to worry about." Eon said turning to me." O looked ahead in time to see what the outcome of your efforts would be, and I saw your loss in the final battle. So I decided to intervene for the good of the planet."

" Again… how am I supposed to get strong enough to beat him, even I know I'd lose if he turned the tide of a fight without breaking a sweat. Hell at this point you could be lying to me but I have a need to get revenge for that thing on the cliff. That just wasn't right." I said feeling anxious.

" Good you haven't forgotten your fighting spirit. I plan to send back to a more dangerous time here on Natura. A more prehistoric time I think you'd call it." Eon explained with a chuckle. " Once there you need to seek out the exiles, a mismatched group of creature that were the best group of fighters during that period. No tribe of beasts wanted to deal with them directly."

" Sounds interesting… you were around back then too huh." I asked…my thoughts roaming.

" I was born five years before the time I'm sending you to." Eon said with a deep laugh. " Lacking memories makes it easy for you to put things together doesn't it."

"I guess so…" I said feeling somewhat down, I couldn't remember having any friends or even parents…it was like I never existed. " Hey Eon, did people like me?"

" More than you know…" eon said turning away as he exhales a jet of blue flames on the wall, leaving it glowing blue. The glowing spot on the walls began to swirl around and became a vortex. " Are you ready?"

" I can't remember how to use any off the powers I have, I'm unarmed, and I'm being sent to the time of the dinosaurs or something…" I began, pausing for a moment, " of course I'm ready!"

With unreasonable confidence I ran into the vortex, Eon laughs behind me. All I could see was flashes of blue and white as I shot through the vortex, when I later regained my memory I'd describe it as the sober man's drug trip.

The next thing I knew the vortex opened up high above a thick forest, still not remembering how to fly I fell down the trees. Apparently I ended up higher than it thought I did, and the forest was taller than I believed as well. I fell through about a hundred feet of branches, before I landed on a giant spider web, which gave ways leaving me to drop down on the forest floor.

"Ah…that bitch ass mother fucker… he better have a good reason for dropping me out of the sky like that…" I groaned pushing myself off the ground.

I brushed myself and looked around, nothing but trees as far as I could see. Which really wasn't that far with the density f plant life on the forest floor. I heard a soft hissing sound behind me and before I could turn around something wrapped around my feet. I feel to the ground and rolled over, a large snake had its tail coiled around my feet and was ready to try and swallow. But I got lucky, as the snake lunged down at me to bite me a giant spider leapt out of the underbrush and bit the snake. With a final dying hiss the snake loosened it's grip on my legs enough for me to squirm away.

I got up and ran as fast as I could out of the forest, which eventually gave way to a dry savannah. I slowed my paced and was finally able to get a good look at my surroundings. The savannah went on for miles and the horizon was riddled with mountains. Most of which I believe were volcanoes due to the plumes of smoke billowing from them.

I continued walking further out into the savannah, the grass getting taller as I went. Soon I couldn't see anything further than a few feet away. Somewhere in the grass I heard something moving around, tensing up I slowed my pace and focused on my surroundings. Information poured into my head, from where I didn't know, but from what I could gather I had three unexpected guests in the grass around me. I concentrated on the info coming into my head, piecing it together with whatever knowledge was left in my head with my memory.

" The pressure of two feet, each with three sharp talons…most likely predators… and they're hunting in a group…" I thought, putting things together. " Some kind of raptor?"

a hoarse airy squawk broke me from my thoughts as the movement around me increased. I decided that I'd be better off being able to see what's coming if I get attacked, so I locked my eyes on a nearby mountain, which was the only thing I could see above the grass, and took off running. On either side of me I could hear whatever was stalking me as they gave chase, a combination of squawks and airy screeches filling the air.

" I'm running into a trap…and the worst part is I have no way of defending myself. And they may not just be your average dinosaurs either…" I thought as I continued on.

Without warning I suddenly fell into a ditch hidden in the grass. I glanced overhead and three raptors, roughly my height jumped over the ditch and kept running. But I wasn't in the clear yet a fourth raptor stopped at the ditch and looked around, it had bright red orange scales running down it's spine that faded to a pale gray as they spread across the rest of it's body it had small feather toward the back of its head and it had teeth like daggers that just showed around the edge of its mouth. And it had the trademark claw of raptors, with one key difference; the claw was literally a long sharp hooked blade.

I held my breath as I watched it, slowly backing away before I was spotted. And you know how there's always that one branch or dry piece of something that screws over someone trying to be sneaky? I stepped on an old dry bone that cracked under my weight, I cursed my luck as the raptor turned in my direction and let out a loud screech. I started running again as the raptor hopped into the ditch and chased after me. The ditch led me back into a area of the forest that was less cluttered with plants, the ground getting wetter as I went on. The other raptors joined got back in the chase along the way and they followed me as I weaved my way around trees.

I came up on a lake, and quickly got the idea of losing the raptors by swimming away. But the raptors wouldn't give me the chance. One of them jumped in the air landing on my back and driving its claw deep into my back. I yelled out in pain as the raptor bent down to bite into my neck. It picked it's head back up as a deep roar sounded in the distance, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the raptors looked around for any other sign of danger.

I returned my attention to the lake as a huge sea serpent rose up out of the water, it had pale blue green scales with dark gray, wavy stripes going down the length of it's body. Its green eyes stared at me for a moment, then it turned its attention to the raptor nearest me and without warning struck out and caught the raptor in its jaws. The other raptors spun around as they heard the dying cry of their friend, they squawked threateningly as the snake dropped their fallen raptors at the waters edge and slithered out of the lake.

Surprisingly as it passed the snake lifted me to my feet with its tail. Respectfully I backed up and ran off toward the other side of the lake. Sadly for me the raptors decided to that they were better off chasing me than facing the snake. A bit fed up with running I decided to try my luck at facing the prehistoric beasts, I spun around and stood my ground as they came at me. Then a fireball fell from above the raptors and exploded on the ground between them, I looked in confused as two dragon landed between the charred bodies of the raptors and myself; one, a large muscular dragon, much more so than eon, with black scales and two blades at the end of his tail that resembled the horns of a beetle. The other, a pale lavender scaled Chinese dragon that was nearly as long as the snake form the lake.

" Didn't feel like working to hard for our food today did you." The lavender dragon asked the black one, his purple eyes not noticing me as he turned his head.

" Actually, those aren't what I was planning on hunting." The black dragon replied arching his neck to look at me, " he is."

" Wait, what!' I yelled out in shock.

" Hmm, this one can talk. I though hairless apes were supposed to be too stupid for that."

The lavender dragon asked turning around.

" I could care less Spectre killing one of them would just be a nice change of pace!" the black dragon said, whipping the rest of his body around and lunging at me.

My heart nearly stopped as I dove and rolled under the dragon, denying him a quick kill. As he crashed down behind me I spun around and climbed onto his back where I knew he couldn't attack me.

" You little insect, get off of me." The dragon roared angrily trying to shake me off.

" So you can try and kill me? No I think I'm good here." I shot back, getting a chuckle from Spectre.

" I think I like this one." He said as he watched, " anyone who can me you look like a fool while hunting deserves that."

The black dragon continued to roar as he shook himself furiously to get me off of his back. I grab onto his neck ad held to try and hinder his efforts, and then I had the bright idea to try and put him to sleep. I tightened my grip the more he fought to throw me off and little by little the dragon began to weaken and slow down. After about five or more minutes the dragon was barely move, he legs buckled under his weight and his head hit the ground.

I slid of his body and looked around; Spectre eyed me curiously as the snake from earlier slithered up behind him.

" Did he just outmatch Zero or am I seeing things?" the snake asked, surprisingly not drawing out his S's.

" I wouldn't say outmatch, but were this a fight he'd definitely be seen as the winner." Spectre said still staring at me, "but he probably could outmatch zero, he has a strong spirit. A strange one but strong."

" What's going on?" a women's voce called out as a she wolf with silvery gray fur came out of the trees.

" This hairless ape just beat zero." The snake said glancing in her direction.

" Tidus you can't be serious." The she wolf asked as she walked up.

"He's not joking Sabre, I watch the whole thing. The little guy put him to sleep."

There was a moment of silence as Sabre stopped and looked at me, and then she came up and started sniffing around me. I tensed up, not knowing whether I should run or stay where I was, then I remembered why I was here and figured I needed a lead.

" Hey…do you know who the exiles are? I dragon named Eon sent me back in time to find them…" I asked quietly, causing Sabre to step away and look me in the eye.

" How do you know eon?" Sabre asked defensively.

"…And that's about it." I said at the end of a quick explanation of my current situation and the thing I was told I'd done by eon.

" You sound like quite a fighter, now hearing that you beat zero isn't so unbelievable…" Sabre said as she walked away from me, then without warning she coughed and sent a metal spike flying toward my face.

I caught the spike just before it hit me and held it tight. I held the spike in my palm in front of me as it dissolved into my skin.

" Hmm, you're telling the truth."

" Do you always shoot spikes at people to see whether they're lying or not?" I asked giving her weird look.

" Don't mind Sabre, she isn't what I'd call a people person." The snake added as he slithered closer.

" Watch what you say Tidus, I also have a short temper." Sabre warned.

"Tidus, Sabre, Zero, Spectre…anyone else here I might want to know abou-" I began as something crashed to the ground beside us. " Holy crap!"

" Ender!" Sabre cried as the dust from the crash settled, revealing a phoenix with pale yellow body feathers that were gray at the tip and a line of black feathers running down the center of his back. He was laid out o the ground, obviously injured.

" Damn, the lightning dragon tribe." Spectre said angrily, pointing out the group of yellow, and light blue dragons in the sky. " Someone wake up Zero."

Spectre shot into the air towards the lightning dragons, while Ender slowly got himself up from the ground.

" I hate not having arms…" he said stretching his wings and taking to the air again.

" Ground one of them so Tidus and I can help!" Sabre called out.

" a little help here?" I asked kneeling near zero's head and patting him on his neck. " I really don't want to be right here when I wake him up. He won't be happy about the sleeper hold thing."

" I got it." Tidus said swinging his tail around and hitting zero in his side.

I backed away as he shook himself wake.

" What the hell, did that little" Zero said standing up, pausing as he glanced at the fight above him. "Never mind, it looks like I'm needed before I can get my answers…"

Zero joined the others in the air, leaving Tidus Sabre and I on the ground. No sooner than he got close to the battle did a lightning dragon blast him with a burst of electricity, the hit sent him flying back toward the ground, more specifically toward me. I dove out of the way at the last second, the force of Zero's impact throwing me head first into a tree.

I staggered back to me feet, blood trickling down my face as the lightning dragon that attacked zero dropped down on him.

" Back off…" I grunted under my breath as I fired a beam of red energy at the dragon, knocking him toward Sabre who howled causing a steel spike to shoot up behind the dragon.

The dragon roared in pain as it was skewered on the spike, but I barely noticed as scrambled memories rushed into my head. I could remember bits and pieces of all my fights, which in turn reminded me how to use a few of my powers. Feeling a new confidence I aimed my arms up toward the remaining three lightning dragons and brought out my metal tentacles, I wrapped a tentacle around each one and brought the crashing to the ground.

" Sabre, go!" I shouted in a commanding tone.

" Careful how you talk to me boy." Sabre shot back before charging up to the dragons, she leapt past them apparently missing. Then out of nowhere dozens of deeps gashes appeared on the dragons' bodies.

"My name is Dark." I said defiantly retracting the tentacles.

" Let's finish this up." Ender said rose her hovered about the lightning dragons who were having trouble moving. The sky suddenly dark as thick clouds began to form. The ender let out a loud screech as a bolt of lightning struck him and he redirected it at the lightning dragons in a focused blast.

" Who ordered the well done dragons?" Spectre asked when he saw the blackened carcasses of the lightning dragons.

" Wow, I'm not much of a comic myself but that was a really bad joke…" a said glancing at Spectre.

" Today just is not my day is it." Zero said walking up, clearly pissed off. " I can't believe I was saved by a bald monkey."

" Really, well make another bald monkey comment and you might end up like those guys over there." I shot back, motioning to the lightning dragons." And to all of you the term is human, damn it…"

" Who the hell do you think you talking to?" Zero asked angrily.

" A few good listeners and one overgrown lizard."

" Hey, hey…calm down Zero, the guy did just save your life and all." Spectre pointed out, stopping Zero as he readied himself to spew flames.

"I'll say thank you on Zero's behalf." Tidus added.

" Thanks Tidus but I think I should go as it is anyway…." I began turning to leave. "I need to find these exiles anyway."

" Then you have to stay here, you just fought alongside them." Sabre said stepping into my path.

" Please tell me your joking.." I said her golden eyes staring at mine, " damn…you're not."

"Joking is Spectre's job, no matter how bad he is at it." Sabre said walking past me.

" Hey my jokes, aren't that bad are they?" Spectre asked.

" Yes, they are Spectre." Tidus replied quickly.

" So if we're supposed to help you train, we'll start tomorrow after we go hunting." Sabre announced.

" He's staying with us? What the hell did I miss while I was asleep?" Zero asked, totally lost.

" These are the best warriors of the time period? This is definitely going to be an interesting experience." I thought looking to the sky. " Definitely going to be interesting…."


	19. Chapter 19

dark: sorry for the long wait for this chapter my readers...thing aren't coming as easy as they did.

shadow: i blame the lack of sleep

Dark: that 's definitely the most likely cause, but anyway i have bad news. my computer has suffered a critical error in thhe form of a needed file being accidently deleted.

sahdow: yeah, another long wait for you guys.

Dark : i wish i had something better for you to enjoy reading until my next chapter but for now this is all i can give you guys. sorry.

* * *

My first night with the Exiles was surprisingly easier than I would have imagined. Pretty much the entire group fell asleep before me, which gave me time to just be me. Watching a couple of dragons, a phoenix, a sea serpent and a wolf sleeping in the same spot is quite a sight to see. I had taken residence on a large tree branch while doing so and before long I fell asleep myself.

Early the next morning a soft chattering sound woke me from my sleep. I slowly opened my eyes to see a small squirrel-like creature about three inches away from my face. In my shock a jolted forward launching the small creature off my chest.

"Oh shit!" I cried as the little animal plummeted toward the ground. I dropped down off the branch and tried to catch the little guy, but had no such luck. Luckily though the creature landed on it's feet and was relatively unharmed, frightened it scurried off back into the forest before I hit the ground.

"Seems like you're not used to sleeping out in the open." Sabre asked cracking open an eye from where she lay.

"My bad, did I wake you up." I asked, somewhat embarrassed.

"You did, but that just means an earlier start to a day of hunting." She said, stretching out as she got to her feet.

"So do you guys all head out at the same time and fend for yourselves or do you head out together."

" We fight as a group when we can but I personally prefer to hunt alone." Sabre said with a hint of anger in her tone.

"But you're a wolf…don't you feel more comfortable hunting in a group?" I asked remembering my years of watching animal planet back on earth.

"You ask too many questions, leave me alone." Sabre shot back avoiding my question.

"You two both talk too much…" Ender said in an annoyed tone from his spot over by a tree.

" I agree… do you two need to talk so much so early." zero added with a low growl," It must be that damn human's fault.

"Don't blame the new guy for your perpetual bad mood." Spectre said as he walked up behind me, seemingly wide awake.

"Nice to see someone wasn't still trying to sleep." i muttered feeling a bit annoyed.

"Oh I'd still be sleeping if you all hadn't woken me up, but I'm not one to complain about something like that." Spectre said with a yawn, "that aside I just really hate zero's attitude."

" and what's that supposed to mean?" zero asked slowly rising to his feet.

" It means your attitude sucks."

" are you really going to start with me already?" Zero shot back as smoke began to billow from his nostrils.

Just when I looked like Spectre and Zero were going to go at it I saw Tidus rise from the water out of the corner of my eye. I was shocked to see him slither out of the water; he was a lot bigger than I thought he was. Almost the size of the sea serpents you see in the movies, and easily quite a few times bigger than Spectre. Without warning he stopped near us and swung his tail around, smashing it into the ground between us. The resulting impact threw all of us back, knocking me off my feet.

"Can we please try not to kill each other today, i don't think we want to scare off a guest eon sent to us." Tidus said calmly as the other exiles stared up at him.

"Damn it Tidus, we don't need you to keep us in check." zero roared angrily.

"Calm down zero, we need to decide who the human goes with today." Sabre announced.

"I say send him with zero, they seem to get along well." Spectre joked, "I'll take him as soon as that happens."

" there no way I'm taking that fool anywhere with me." zero said firmly.

"Sadly I'm staying here today, there's nothing I could do with him here." Tidus replied sounding disappointed.

"I'll take him tomorrow; I don't feel like teaching today." Ender muttered just loud enough to be heard.

"I have no time for a cub like him." Sabre said turning away.

"What the hell did you just call me? A cub? Look bitch I can take you referring to me as human like I don't have a name but I won't let you talk to me like I was some damn kid wolf." I shouted finally getting a little too pissed off.

"Watch it human, I could kill you where you stand." Sabre snarled.

"I'd like to see you try." I challenged staring into Sabre's eyes.

"You're a confident fool I'll give you that." Sabre growled turning away.

"You know what...screw it, if none of you guys has time for me I'll just leave."

Before any of them could say a word to me i was gone. I sprinted through the forest until i was far away from the lake where the exiles stayed. But getting away wouldn't be that easy, not long after i sensed something quickly moving my way.

"Sabre..." I thought angrily glancing back into the forest.

Not feeling like a direct confrontation I grew a few metal spikes from my fingers and climbed up the nearest tree. I climbed onto a sturdy branch and watched the ground below as Sabre ran to the base of the tree. She sniffed around a bit and then looked up at me, from the look in her eye I could tell she wasn't here of her own accord.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked looking for a route of escape.

"Tidus sent me to ask you to come back, but I don't know what he or eon could want with a weakling like you." Sabre explained with a low growl.

"you couldn't make me go back even he told you to bring me back by force, you'd never catch me." I said with a confident laugh.

"Why not come down here, then we'll see whose faster." Sabre dared me baring her teeth.

"how about I test your tracking skills first." i proposed as I began leaping from one tree branch to another.

Below Sabre followed without any effort, no matter how many twist and turns I pulled around tree branches she was right below. I was quickly running out of trees as I chose a direction to travel in and stuck with it. As i ht the last branch at the edge of the forest I found myself looking out over a scene that looked like it was plucked right out of Jurassic park, seeing as Natura was built around my imagination, it probably was. Dinosaurs of all sizes roamed around a wide open flatland covered into thick green grass.

"whoa...I wasn't quite ready for that...." I thought to myself looking around.

With a quick shake of my head my thoughts returned to the matter at hand, I jumped out as far as I could with Sabre at my heels and began running across the flatland. I went right for a mass of dinosaurs grazing in the grass, then like the free runner I never was I started jumping and diving around every triceratops, hadrosaurus, euoplocephalus or any other dinosaur small enough that got in my way. Sabre was still right on me but the gap between us was steadily getting bigger, me being taller probably made it easier fo9r me to get over the living obstacles whose paths I strategically crossed.

"Looks like I just might..." I thought glancing back, surprised to not see Sabre, "wait where'd she go?"

I skidded to a stop amid a herd of triceratops that paid me no mind as they grazed on the grass. Looking around I scratched my head thinking that Sabre had given up, and then I heard a growl behind me. I spun around only to be pounced on by Sabre, falling hard on my back.

" give me a reason why i should tear your throat out right now." she asked though bared teeth.

"In the future I save the planet." I blurted out glancing off to the side.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Sabre snarled stepping off of my chest.

"why is it you can't believe I'm a good fighter?" I asked glaring at the wolf as i stood up.

"I've yet to see a human that could take on any beast head to head without some kind of trickery." Sabre stated flatly as a loud dragon's roar boomed above us.

"What the hell was that?" I asked looking to the sky, spotting what looked like a dragon high in the sky, _"that can't be good..." _I thought as all the triceratops and other non-predatory dinosaurs began to run past us.

"We must be in his tribe's territory, I suggest that you leave." Sabre advised as she turned to leave.

"Why don't we both stay and i can show you just how much "trickery" I need to fight this guy?" I suggested holding my ground as another roar came from behind me._ "you dirty son of a-"_ I thought as I turned around to see a T-rex biting down over the back of a triceratops. But it wasn't your average Tyrannosaurus rex thought, more like across between a stegosaurus and a T-rex, with plates down its spine and spikes on it's tail.

"Who dares trespass in wyvern territory?" a deep voice boomed behind me coupled with the sound of flapping wings.

"Wyvern?" I thought turning around, to my surprise the dragon I spotted earlier was actually a large brown and black wyvern with a heavy barbed tail.

I turned to look for Sabre but she was gone, not a trace of her to be seen or heard anywhere. and to make things worse I could here the sound of heavy footsteps thudding up behind me, meaning nothing less than I was about to be in the middle of a heavyweight turf battle.

"One of those hairless monkeys, perfect for a snack before I enjoy my kill." the T-rex chuckled as he approached us.

"Both of you are trespassing on my tribe's territory, leave now or die." The wyvern roared.

"Maybe you'll kill the monkey, but I'd kill you before you had a chance to swing your tail." the t-rex shot back with a growl.

"you know what you both are nothing but a couple of overgrown leaf munching lizards." i shouted out, not sure what kind of taunt would work on a wyvern and a t-rex.

"Insect!" the wyvern roared angrily as he spewed flames down at me.

I dove out of the way of the flames before they could hit me, luckily the t-rex was so lucky. he roared in pain as the flames burned his legs then lowered his head and charged into the wyvern, the bastard was smarter than a thought as he passed by he swatted at me with his tail sending me through the air.

I hit the ground hard but was right back on my feet, the same could be said for the wyvern as he recovered from the head butt of the t-rex. But big rex had already shifted his attention back to me he was charging full speed at me; more ready too crush me in his jaws. I was ready too i focused dark energy to my right hand, as the T-rex lowered his head to about my level a jumped into the air and came down over his head.

"Dark impact!' i cried out as my fist made contact head, slamming it down into the ground, forcing the rest of his body to follow.

My strike knocked the tyrannosaurus out, for the moment at least. i turned my attention back to the wyvern but he was nowhere to be seen, suddenly I felt like two vices clamped down over my shoulders and pulled me into the air, clamps with 5 inch base diameter spikes digging into me. With a yelp of pain I looked up to see what I expected, the wyvern carrying me high into the air.

He went into an upside down loop a released me as he came around the top, launching me higher into the air. As I fell he made another pass and slammed his tail into my side, the barbs causing it to hurt a lot more than usual. I was heading toward the ground faster than I'd ever want to even if I was sure I'd survive the fall, and I wasn't.

"damn it...I know eon showed me something where I could fly...but i can't remember how." I thought desperately as the ground drew ever closer, "come on, come on, come on...."

"looks like you still need me after all kid..." a voice chuckled in my mind.

"what the...KidDark?"

"so that nightmare guy didn't make you forget about everyone you know apparently...and you don't have the power to fly. You control gravity remember?"

"not really but anything's worth a shot in this case!" I yelled to myself, focusing my mind on defying gravity.

Much to my dismay the ground wasn't the only thing i had to worry about anymore; the T-rex had woken up and positioned himself to snap me up as soon as it came within the reach of his jaws. As it looked more and more like i was going to end up a mangled heap either on the ground or in someone's stomach my thought went from being desperate to being flat out angry.

"Fuck you gravity. You're my bitch, not the other way around!" I shouted closing my eyes for a moment.

I instantly felt myself stop falling, i snapped open my eyes to the site of the t-rex staring up at me. he jumped up and smashed his jaws closed just a few feet beneath me. i let out a breath of relief , which was short lived because my a powerful pain erupted from my side where the wyvern's tail had struck me.

"When did monkeys learn to fly." the t-rex roared up at me, circling below me like a shark.

"Ask the wicked witch of the west..." i muttered popping a blade from my arm.

I dove down toward the T-rex's head, rolling out of the way as he tried to take a bite out of me. i landed on his head and slid down his back, putting me face to face with wyvern as he dove toward our mutual opponent. i jumped and flipped over the wyvern as the two reptiles collided. the wyvern locked it's talons into the T-rex's back and took a bite out of it's side. The t-rex let out a roar of pain a shook violently to throw the wyvern off, then i came down over the wyvern's back and drove my arm-blade deep into the base of it's tail. the wyvern released it's grip on the t-rex and let out a roar of pain, jolting back from the suddenness of the blow. the wyvern hit the ground, throwing me off it's back and rolling across the ground.

The t-rex whipped around angrily and was quick to pin the wyvern's neck down with it's foot, the winged beast fighting to stand to no avail. i expected the big guy to take a bite out of the wyvern while it was down, but to my surprise the T-rex stood over the wyvern with it's mouth opened slightly. The plates along its back began to glow a and flames began to spew out from the sides of beasts jaws, then it spat a large flaming meteor like stone down at the wyvern.

"what the-" I yelled as the stone collided with the wyvern, with some explosive results. the T-rex himself stumbled back from the effect of his attack, leaving the wyvern a burned and bloodied mess.

"Damn Godzilla rip-off...but this may have just gotten a whole lot easier." I thought to myself extending an arm blade from my free arm.

"Now where did my snack get to?" the t-rex asked staring down at me.

"Play times over...if I want some respect from the exiles I got to take this guys down with nothing but brute force." I muttered to myself as i charged toward the t-rex.

The T-rex readied another meteor shot and spat it directly into my path, i dove out of the way to avoid the brunt of the attack but the resulting explosion threw me head over heels to the ground. Not letting me get a moment to recover he charged at me and stomped down on my back.

"Finally I can have my meal." the t-rex said victoriously, not noticing as i slowly began to push myself up off the ground. "What!"

As I got to my hands and knees I shifted my legs and placed my hand under the T-rex's foot, " I'm not some bug that you can squash under your foot." I grunted as I pushed the T-rex off of me, knocking him of his feet. I feel back to my knees after the sudden burst of strength; shaking myself I stood up and brought out an arm blade again. The t-rex roared angrily as he got back to his feet and charged at me, I let out an exhausted breath as I made my move. I ducked under the t-rex's head as he tried once to eat me again, and jumped up beneath him. he roared in pain i cut a long gash into his stomach, he stumbled forward and fell just as i hit the ground and rolled out from under him. the tyrannosaurus lay beside me roaring in pain, trying to stand.

"Stop trying you're already dead." i said flatly as i rested my hand on his side, "Hex cannon."

At point blank range the beam from my hex cannon tore through the t-rex like butter, in just a moment a hole was torn through his body nearly big enough for a person to walk through. the t-rex's head slowly stopped moving as the beast's blood continued to drain into the ground. i sat down against his body and took a deep breath, then I glanced over to the body of the wyvern.

" I wonder if every day's going to be like this?" I thought to myself as i pushed myself to my feet, and started the long walk back to the Exiles camp.

* * *

Dark: just had a random spark of insanity, that turned out to be quite interesting. i issue a chakllenge to those who have been following this story.

Shadow: really and that would be?

Dark: write what you'd like to see next chapter, if i like it it'll happen i promise....with minor alterations made as i see fit...

Shadow: that's actually not a bad idea...

Dark: i don'y know why you'd think it was after all **you **were my idea.

shadow:....*glare*

Dark: VICTORY!


	20. Sabre

It wasn't too long of a trip before I got back to where the exiles camped. When I got there I was alone, so I decided to cool off a bit in Tidus' lake. Just to be safe I kept my jeans on, no clue what I'd run into in the water.

"Maybe this'll help me figure out what my next move should be; the so called "exiles" are no help to me." I thought as I tossed my shirt over a low bush, "Well maybe Tidus would but he had an excuse."

"So you didn't get killed after all…" Sabre's voice sounded from behind me.

"Damn…" I muttered turning to face the she wolf, "what do you want?"

"I couldn't focus on my hunting because of you, so I'd say you owe me a meal." Sabre explained glancing away from me.

"Well I don't see how it's my fault that you cared that I was in a fight." I shot back.

"I never said it was." Sabre replied in a tone that was almost one of understanding. "But look at it this way, now you can still get the training Eon sent you here to get."

I tried to think of something to say but nothing meaningful came to mind. Though I was somewhat opposed to the idea of having to follow and potentially obey Sabre, I grabbed my shirt and stepped beside her.

"All right, where to?" I asked as I popped my head back through the top of my shirt.

"My old tribe's territory." Sabre growled hatefully, "I hate to go back but it's the only place to find my favorite prey. I could never go hunt there until no because I had no way of getting it back here."

"I should have known she had an ulterior motive." I thought jokingly,"lead the way Sabre."

By my guess we headed to the west of the of the exiles camp, passing dinosaurs and mammals alike as we walked. When we left it was about noon judging from my near nonexistent shadow at the time, but I was sure Sabre and I walked for about an hour and a half in silence.

"Hey Sabre, why are you and the others called the exiles?" I asked to break the silence.

"We've all been exiles from our respective tribes; why else would we use such a name?" Sabre explained looking at me curiously.

"Hmm…why'd you get exiled?" I added, just to see if I'd get an answer.

Sabre immediately froze for a moment, growling fiercely at no one. I took a step back out of fear that I'd crossed some unknown line with her.

"Sabre forget it, you don't have to answer…" I said nervously. Half a moment later Sabre fell silent then looked around like she'd forgotten where she was, her gaze finally resting on me.

"I'm…sorry, it's been a long time since I've thought about that." She explained, speaking in low tones," my tribe, or my pack as we wolves call it, was led by a young alpha wolf named Uro. He was unbelievably arrogant and felt he deserved everything. One day he decided he wanted me to be his mate but I declined, then when he tried to order me to be his mate I clawed across his face. When the wound scarred up he was furious, and decided that he and his brothers were going to kill me. At first I was able to hold them off on my own, but then they gained the upper hand and I was sure I was going to die. Then my brother came and helped me, he was fast and strong, a perfect candidate for alpha, and he proved it. He beat Uro and his brothers, he let them live, he promised to let Uro remain alpha because he had no interest in being a leader. We left, the next day I awoke to find that my brother had been killed while he slept. I wanted to confront Uro but he'd already planned for that, he told the pack I was exiled and they chased me out."

"Whoa, that's…terrible." I said, shocked.

"You humans aren't the only ones who deceive and cheat to have their way." Sabre stated sharply as she continued on.

"How much farther do we have to go anyway?" I asked uneasily, still a bit off after hearing Sabre's story.

"You see those hills in front of us, that's where we're going." Sabre answered glancing back at me.

"Ah, well that's good. We've been walking for what three hours now; I was beginning to get bored."

"We've been walking for about five hours actually….Eon made sure we learned to tell time accurately." Sabre corrected me.

"Jeez, I was way off." I muttered.

We walked over the top of the hill and below was a hunter's paradise, well a hunting animal anyway. The entire area was fill with birds, deer, and every other animal you could think you'd expect to find on earth, just a little different. The most notable difference was in the deer, which were much more horse like than normal, as well as having a gazelle like horn growing in between its antlers.

" I don't remember thinking deer needed an upgrade…" I thought to myself staring at the animals.

" All right it's time for you to how me your hunting skills." Sabre ordered, " You're looking for a bear, and hurry up. If one of my former pack mates finds us we'll both wind up dead."

" You tell me this now?" I asked in disbelief.

" Just go!" she snapped.

A little pissed off the rush I closed my eyes to try and sense what was going around in my surroundings, like I had done with the raptors a day before. I could feeling the rough knowledge of everything happening in my surrounding coming to me, a group of animals grazing on the grass in an area out of sight, a great deal of movement in a lake, another large body of animals all concentrated in the farthest areas of the small patch of forest.

" Deer, fish…and my best bet for the wolves would be those guys in the back of the forest. Good…" I thought to myself as I sensed something big, as well as a few more potential wolves.

" This way, but there may be a few of your old friends close by to your target." I explained pointing in the appropriate direction.

"…Go, I'll stay here. If I went they're sure to catch my scent and come after us." Sabre decided after a moment of thought.

" All right I'll be back as soon as I'm get the big guy." I said with a nod.

" I took off down the other side of the hill into the forest, contrary to what I expected it the forest got less dense as I went in deeper. It was quite a peaceful run as I made my way toward the middle of the forest, despite the fact that most of the animals here would make an easy meal for a pack of wolves.

" All right the big guy should be right over…" I thought, slowing my pace as I neared the area where the bear should be, "please be normal…"

I searched around a bit and came upon an average looking grizzly bear eating berries from a large bush. I crept up to the beast slowly, freezing as it stood up and sniffed the air. The bear dropped back down onto all fours and looked back in my direction, almost as if to determine how much of a threat I was.

" Aw, shit. Here he comes." I thought as the bear stood up again and roared.

The bear dropped to all fours again and charged at me, my first reaction was to jump out of the way but for some reason I couldn't move. The bear closed ground quickly, thrusting itself up off the ground and smacking it's arm into my chest, throwing me into a tree and nearly toppling it in the process.

" Great… a bear with unnatural strength in bear standards and some unknown ability." I sputtered on the ground, rolling to my feet.

" Leave." A deep voice ordered.

I turned to see the bear staring at me over a short distance.

" Leave now and I won't kill you." He repeated forcefully.

" Sorry, can't do that." I replied simply, creating a hunting knife in my hand I slid it behind my back.

Then without warning a wolf suddenly leapt from the trees onto the bears side and attempted to tear a bite out of it." Shit." I thought knowing that I had another target to kill. I ran toward them both, revealing my knife and a second wolf leapt out in front of me.

" Stay out of this two legger, your already trespassing in our territory as it is." The second wolf growled threateningly.

" Why is it that all these animals insult humans, they haven't even done anything to Natura yet?" I asked jokingly throwing my knife at the first wolf as the bear struggled to shake it loose, I didn't get a direct hit but the knife cut off the wolf's ear. The wolf let out a pained yelp and released its bite, allowing the bear to shake it off.

" Fool, I'll kill you!" the second wolf snarled as it leapt at me.

I swung my fist and connected with the side of the wolf's skull, stunning it as it fell to the side. The bear was handling his attacker fairly well he easily kept the lone wolf at bay with a few swipes of his powerful arms. But apparently the wolf got tired of staying on the defensive, it leapt onto the bear again, just missing being hit, and began digging the claws of it's feet into the bear's face.

" Pay attention!" My wolf snapped as it jumped up and locked its jaws onto my arm.

I let out a pained grunt and fell back from the weight of the wolf; with my back on the ground he now had the advantage. The wolf began clawing and tearing into my chest and stomach while skill trying to bite at my face. Making the wise decision I defended myself with the arm he'd already gotten, better to lose one arm and attack when you can than lose both defending yourself right?

The wolf locked it's jaws around my arm again, shaking his head violently to tear off more flesh. By this point I was in a fair deal of pain and fed up with this damn wolf.

" You know what…you just bit off more than you can chew…" I said in anger as I made several spikes rapidly grow fro my arm through the wolf's skull.

The wolf's body seized for as second then fell limp, as expected. I retracted the spike and tossed it to the side with my good hand, which also happened to be my left. I'm right handed. I looked at what was left of my arm, my muscles were torn up and my bones were exposed. I breathed through my teeth as I thought of what to do, wrapping my arm was sort of out of the question, so I decided to try sealing the wound up metal. Why I decided to do this I never remembered, but I did it. And surprisingly enough it worked.

I instantly turned y attention to the remaining wolf and the bear, or as I found, just the bear. He had apparently thrown the wolf of his back again and stepped on its neck, but the wolf was definitely under the bear's paw. Tough's his face was torn up beyond recognition the bear still had some fight left in him, although he was panting heavily from the exertion and loss of blood. He stood up and came toward me swing his paws wildly, not wanting to prolong the matter any longer I extended a blade from my left arm though his neck and spine.

He hit the ground with a dull thud and I stood staring at him. " Damn… how am I supposed to carry this bastard…" I said to myself, hanging my head. I came up with the idea of carrying it with a few metal tentacles that I could grow from my back and went with it.

" I feel like Doc Oc…" I muttered as a picked up the bear's body with the tentacles and began to walk back to Sabre.

"You look like you ran into trouble?" Sabre said in a curious tone.

" You mean other than the bear, who you neglected to tell me could somehow stop me from moving?" I asked accusingly.

" Hmm…now that I thin about it I do remember something about their roar…" Sabre said thoughtfully, " Well your still alive and well so I'd say this was a good hunting day, let's go."

" Are you serious, it was a five hour walk without the extra weight." I groaned motioning toward the bear, " it'll take us twice as long to walk back now."

" Then why don't we run? She suggested, looking back at me. Then she suddenly began to run.

" you little…bitch.!" I shouted after her, beginning to run myself.

It seemed very strange to me, though I was tired and I could feel the weight of the bear pressing down on me, I could feel that I was running faster than normal. Not only did I catch up to Sabre as quickly as she could catch up to me, I passed her. Sabre picked up the pace and passed me, now what started out as a simple run home had turned into a race as we both fought to stay ahead of the other.

" When did you get so fast?" Sabre called to me at one point as she came up beside me.

" Not sure…but I like it." I panted beside her.

I'd never swear to it but I could have sworn a heard her laugh a little wolfish laugh after I said that. But at the moment I wasn't concerned with that, I smiled wide as I lost track of time, and lost myself in the sheer joy of speed.

" Look, we're back!" Sabre called to me as our destination came into view.

I gradually slowed myself down as we got closer, finally coming to a walking pace at the edge of the trees. I was tired as hell but I felt as if it had never been more worth it.

" Two hours…" Sabre panted, her breathing just as heavily as mine.

" That's ridiculous…" I mumbled falling into a semi coherent state.

" Looks like…I can't call you human anymore…you can't be." Sabre joked breathlessly.

" I'm just…a little more…and …a little…less." I managed to get out before I collapsed from the sheer exhaustion.

The next thing I knew I was sitting up at the edge of the water in the exiles camp, I looked around frantically for a moment as the memory of the day's events returned to me. I found myself lying down again laughing out loud, staring up at the sky.

" What are you laughing for?" Tidus said as he looked down on me out of nowhere.

" Nothing, nothing." I laughed calming myself. " Hey where were you today? I almost took a swim in your lake and I never saw you."

" I was out hunting like everyone else, I have to eat too you know?" Tidus said with a questioning look.

" oh, I thought you had to stay close to the water being a sea serpent and all." I admitted.

" I'd have never gotten here if that were true. I can survive for quite some time without being in water as long as I've got enough water stored in my stomach." Tidus explained with a laugh.

" So the new guys finally awake." Spectre called from off to the side," I heard you matched Sabre in a foot race, that's not something that happens often."

" I told you he beat me Spectre, get the story straight." Sabre put in.

" Don't ask me how it happened but it did." I said as I stood up and stretched, quickly pulling back as I aggravated the injury the wolf gave me.

" That bear really got you good didn't he?" Spectre asked motioning to the remnants of the bear's carcass.

" What, this? Eh, it's nothing." I said dismissing the question.

Taking a deep breath I looked up at the moon, which was full that night. But something was off, it was glowing green slightly, and that caught my attention.

" Hey what's up with the moon, why's it green?" I asked openly.

" That happens once every few months, most of the weak minded creatures that are active at night are more violent on nights like theses." Tidus explained looking up at the moon himself.

" Interesting…" I thought continuing to stare.

As the night went on everyone fell back to sleep except for myself. Ender and Zero had never actually come back from their hunting trips but according to Tidus that was normal so I put it out of my mind.

" That moon…I wonder what affect it has on wolves…" I thought as I glanced down to where Sabre lay, only to find she'd disappeared, " what the hell?"

I immediately resorted to trying to sense where she might be; somehow knowing that this wasn't good. I had sensed her presence earlier that day while searching for the bear so I knew exactly what I was looking for. She was heading in the direction of her pack's territory and I quickly dropped down from my tree and went after her. With my newfound speed I covered ground quickly, add in the fact that she wasn't moving to quickly.

" She's not moving at all?" I thought sensing three more bodies of similar size to Sabre surrounding her. Sabre rushed toward the one in front of her then they all went for her, I could sense something moving through the air and falling to the grass. Without a doubt it was blood.

I suddenly put it all together in my mind and I hoped was wrong. But a pained howl only aided to boost suspicions. I took off in a full sprint in Sabre's direction and soon the sound of snarling wolves met my ears as well as multiple yelps of pain. As things came into view I knew I was right. Those two wolves were found after I'd gone, alerting the pack, they tracked the scent of my blood and the bears, they waited till nightfall and went searching for the one who murdered their pack mates, and found Sabre instead. Sabre was fending them off and not doing too bad, but it was clear she needed help.

As she broke away from the three wolves I took the opportunity to jump in. as one of the three wolves leapt at her I ran up punched it in its side.

" What are you doing here? This is my fight!" Sabre shouted behind me.

" Can't defend yourself without a little help Sabre." One of the wolves asked as they regrouped across from us.

" Says the alpha who couldn't who can't fight one on one." I shot back angrily, " you have a lot of nerve trying to act tough Uro."

" I said this is my fight, go back to the others." Sabre ordered stepping in front of me.

" This is your fight, but I'm helping whether you like it or not. These guys nearly killed you before. I'm making sure it's fair." I laughed as I stood beside her, looking down at the blood stains in her fur.

" Brother, the human smells like the one who killed the other two." One of the two other wolves said to Uro.

" Can we kill him?" the other asked anxiously.

" You're right Sol he does, go ahead Rez. Kill him." Uro ordered as all the came at Sabre and me.

" Fine you can help." Sabre grunted as she went for Uro and Sol.

Rez eagerly leapt toward me and I easily caught him by the throat. Then I suddenly felt electricity ripped through my body and I was blown back and landed on the ground.

" Down already? Come on I want to have some fun." Rez said manically as electricity crackled around him.

" Damn it to hell!" I shouted slamming my fist on the ground.

" None of this would be happening if you had just been mine Sabre, You and your brother would still have each other!" Uro shouted as Sabre forced him to back away with a few new fresh cuts.

" You have no right to talk about my brother!' she snarled at him coughing a metal spike at him.

Sabre missed as I got to my feet, Rez was ready and came right at me, electricity surging all around him. I swung my arm back and brought out a metal tentacle, then whipped it at him as hard as I could but missed. Wide open, I rolled out of the way of his attack but he came right back around for another pass. For a split second he became a bolt of pure electricity and jumped into my body and he was out in a moment. But that moment brought me to my knees. The remnant electricity made me twitch violently as Rez howled victoriously.

But I wasn't done, I brought out another metal tentacle from my left arm, but this time it was black, the other was slowly becoming black as well. I stood back up a Rez started to laugh like he was a hyena instead of a wolf.

" I like you, you don't go down easy!" he said as he came at me again.

I didn't move, Rez was annoying but obviously not smart. I swung one tentacle at his feet and he jumped to avoid it, but at the same time I sent the other around and grabbed him. He immediately sent a current down the tentacle into my arm but this time I absorbed it, and sent it through the other tentacle mixed it a bit of my own dark energy and plunged it into the manic wolf's heart.

" Brother he killed Rez!" Sol called out jumping away from Sabre, who was doing much better than before and at the same time was covered in more wounds.

" What?" Uro said in shock, looking away at the same moment Sabre came in for a bite.

Uro howled in agony as Sabre's blade like teeth ripped a chunk out of his shoulder. The alpha retailed by clawing Sabre's face and leapt back toward his brother.

" Enough of this, the moon glow's green sol. Let's show these two why we rule the pack." Uro suggested to Sol as I came and checked on Sabre.

" What the hell are they doing?" I asked Sabre as I watched the two of them.

" They're werewolves." Sabre growled simply.

" What…the…fuck!" I shouted, burying my ace in my palm," ok, what can they do besides that."

" Uro can use fire and Sol can use shadows." Sabre said as the to brothers began to change into werewolves that were just a bit taller than me.

" Oh, well that actually isn't that bad…" I said in a somewhat relieved tone, " I got sol."

" Like you had a choice in the matter?" Sabre joked as she ran toward them with me following close behind.

Uro and Sol stood ready for us as we approached them. Sabre made the hairs of her fur grow into thousand of tiny metal needles as she tackled Uro to the ground and before sol could aid him came up and punched the werewolf in the face. Sol only took a step back from the blow and instantly a bundle of shadows wrapped around me and threw me into the air. From there I could see Uro use a wave of flames to get Sabre off of him before I began to fall back toward the ground. Sol's shadows were waiting for and slammed me into the ground. The werewolf then waited for me to start to get to me knees and tried an upward slash with his claws. I moved my head about an inch out of harms way but Sol managed to get my chest.

The blow knocked me back but sprung back to my feet and struck the werewolf at the base of his chest. I quickly followed up with an uppercut to the beast's chin and finally saw some affect. He stumbled back then dropped to all fours and pounced on me. I dropped on my back and he growled in my face.

" Watch the wolf breath you bastard." I snapped spitting in Sol's eye as I shifted my feet onto his torso and thrust him high into the air.

I jumped to my feet and took aim at sol as shadows closed in around me. A small smirk appeared on my face as I fired a beam of dark energy up at Sol, tearing a chunk out of his body. I walked away as his body came crashing back to earth.

" Fucking mutt…" I thought as I could hear Sol's dying whines.

I went over to Sabre to help her but as I looked between her and Uro I knew she could handle it. She had scorch marks and singed fur all over but overall she hadn't taken much more damage than she had before hand, Uro on the other hand was bleeding from multiple wounds all over his body.

"Go on, kill me!" Uro snarled weakly as I walked closer.

Sabre stared at him silently for a few seconds then turned around. " If you want someone to kill you let it be someone from the pack, they need a leader and you aren't worth killing." She replied.

" I'll show you to turn your back on me." Uro snarled angrily charging toward Sabre.

His claws ablaze he was sure that he wouldn't let anyone disrespect him and live. But I had other plan, I ran and jumped between him and Sabre and took the hit. Four blazing claws cut deep into my chest, and almost knocked me to the floor from the sudden intense pain. But I stayed strong and held Uro in place.

" Let go of me human!" he growled as Sabre jumped up off of my back and into in the air, raking her claws down Uro's spine.

" That's for my brother." Sabre snarled.

" And this is for Sabre." I added, sliding out an arm blade and cutting Uro's head off.

The head rolled across the ground and h\the body crumpled to the ground. I sat down and took a deep breath, my chest still exploding in pain. Again I sealed the wounds with metal, this time making sure that it was softer than that on my arm so as not to obstruct my breathing.

" Why did you come and follow me." Sabre asked stepping over Uro's body.

" I felt like I was my fault… killed a wolf from you're pack when I got the bear. I figured they followed my scent and ended up finding you." I explained, breathing deeply.

"Maybe you did lead them here… but I was going after Uro either way."

" Oh, well then I saved you the trouble of fighting off you're entire pack." I laughed, stopping quickly from the pain in my chest.

" You really aren't human Dark." Sabre said almost laughing.

" Oh now you say my name after I help you out of a tight spot? Typical." I said jokingly turning away.

" You earned it, we were wrong to assume you were like the other human's we've met." Sabre Explained brushing past me. " Come on we need to go back, it's too dangerous to sleep here."

" Yes mother!" I joked as I stood and followed.


	21. Spectre part 1

Dark- and so the long awaited new chapter of dark rising finally arrives!

Spectre- it's about time you got to your training day with me, i was getting worried.

Sabre- we all know dark's best work comes slowly.

Dark- thank you sabre it's always-

Zero- best work, ha. his best work won't be seen until he gets through with the day i trained him.

Ender- what you did can't really be called training zero.

Tidus- agree, it was more like you poor nature got the best of you.

Zero- and what do you mean poor nature?

Dark- and here's where i cut you guys off, enjoy the chapter people.

* * *

After we got back that night I had a dream. I suddenly found myself alone on a battlefield across from Nightmare and his army of monsters.

"Natura is doomed Dark Oblivion, your dream is over." Nightmare said to me as he rose up above his monsters.

"This dream isn't over until I'm not around to fight for it!" I shouted as I drew Mira in her true form.

"Then you'll just disappear along with your dream. Kill him!" Nightmare ordered, sending his monsters charging toward me.

I held my ground as the creatures came at me, hellhound, cannon-blades, fright knights on the night-mares, brutes wielding their giant axes, almost the entire nightmare roster was coming upon me en masse. The first things to get to me were a couple of cannon blades that teleported across the battlefield to me. Before they could strike I was already bounding off the chest of the on nearest to me as a blasted the head off of one of its counterparts with dark energy. I launched myself high into the air, charging a void sphere in each hand as I ascended. When I felt I had reached a suitable height I launched the two small building sized void sphere down at Nightmare's army of monsters.

The two giant spheres landed upon hundreds of Nightmare's beast and numerous others could not stop themselves before running into the attacks before they dissipated. Though I had taken out so many of the creatures with just two attacks I had barely dented the numbers of the army. As I cursed my luck three knights rode their night-mares into the sky and came after me. Knowing I had the advantage of being able to remain in the air on my own power I had Mira change into a large war hammer and flew toward the knights and their mounts ready to strike.

As the first night came within range he drew his blade and swung at me as hard, with a quick swing of my hammer I knocked his blade out of his hand. I let the momentum of the hammer carry me around as I dealt a heavy blow to the head of the knights mount, knocking it head over heels as its rider was knocked off and it tumbled from the sky. I let the hammer fly from my hand as the other two knights rushed toward me. I shot one steel tentacle from my hand toward the hammer and coiled it tightly around its handle, swinging it like a mace to build power before launching it into one of the Knights.

The knight plummeted to the ground, its mount still head toward me. Extending a blade from my free arm I charged through the night-mare's flames as it spewed them over me, slicing deep into its neck. As the beast fell the remaining knight rode to my level in the air. Cracking my neck I withdrew my tentacle that held Mira returning her to her true form as I sized up the knight.

"You have caused master Nightmare much trouble. I will not be felled until I eliminate you from this world." The night growled as it drew its sword. Kicking its mount in the ribs the knight came at me, blade in the air.

I deflected the first strike as he passed by me but his mount quickly circled around and came at me again. I spun around and blocked the night again this time sending out two tentacles that pierced through his shoulder and pulled him off his mount. I brought the knight close to me and wrapped a tentacle around each of his limbs.

"Release me!" the knight ordered as his mount came around again, ready to blow a torrent of flames toward me.

"Not until we kill your pet." I laughed evilly as I threw the night into his night-mares torrent of flames, using the tentacle wrapped around his arm to drive his sword into the beast neck. As the nightmare fell out of the sky I pulled the night back toward me, my fist charged with dark energy as I delivered a dark impact to the knight's head, turning his skull into puzzle pieces.

Swinging Mira around I once again had her change into a hammer, this one a fair deal larger than the previous. I swung the hammer under my feet then let myself drop while holding onto the hammers handle. As I fell I charged the head of the hammer with dark energy; on the ground several brutes threw their axes up toward me, most of them missing, but one managed to clip the hammer and threw me into a spin. The suddenness of the spin threw me from the hammer and I crashed hard into a hellhound, my hammer falling somewhere into the throng of monster while delivering the desired result of an earth shaking explosion.

I groaned in pain as I stood up atop the hellhound, but I was hardly standing straight up when another pounced on me and pinned me to the ground, several other snarling and prowling around me for their turn at me while I held this one by its jaws to protect myself. Then my heart sank as the creature suddenly collapsed into smoke and merged over me, increasing the pressure on my chest as they formed a giant Cerberus. Once again the beast tried to snap me up in its jaws, giving me the much more difficult task of holding its jaws open by its teeth.

The creature hot rancid breath choked me as I struggled to keep it from crushing my head like a grape in its teeth. With a growl the Cerberus jerked it's head upward, tossing me into the air as it jumped to snap me up. The beasts jaws slammed closed around me but I wasn't dead yet.

"Black massacre!" I cried out impulsively, as a voice rang in my head.

"Wake up."

"Dark wake up." I heard through as I slept, still not realizing I was asleep, "wake up!"

My eyes snapped open and I suddenly found myself falling to the ground. I hit the cool moist earth with a soft thud, my head hitting the ground.

"Shit…" I groaned, my heart still racing from the combat intensive dream, "how the hell did I fall out of the tree?"

"you practically blew the thing up that's why ." Spectre informed me as he snaked his head in front of me.

Curious I looked back up at the tree and found the there was hardly anything left of it. Somehow in my sleep I'd managed to reduce the tree to less than half of its original height with no hint to where the rest of it could have gone.

"That must have been some dream you had if you did that without realizing it." Spectre said with a nod as he looked up at the tree, "And I thought you're aura was powerful before, but just before you woke up, it was so strong it almost scared me."

"What is this about my aura, and why would you be scared if my aura was really strong." I asked as I stood up and brushed myself off.

"You mean you really don't know how your aura allows you to boost the effect and control of your abilities?" Spectre asked, shocked as I shook my head, "what the heck do you humans learn when you're born."

"Like you learned about auras at birth? You probably couldn't even understand anything even if someone tried to teach you." I doubted.

"Ha, dragons aren't that pitiful at birth, the skill of understanding speech and all the basics of living are there at birth. Hell I was talking in a few weeks after I was born and able to hunt a two months." Spectre explained with a confident smile.

"Well, I always did think dragons were never too vulnerable." I thought to myself, rolling my eyes.

"Either way you need to learn how to control that aura of yours now or you may just hurt someone the next time you have a dream like that." Spectre advised taking to the air, "follow me, I'll show you my usual meditation spot. That's where we'll start your training."

Looking back on the other exiles that were somehow still asleep I said," fine, might as well go with you since everyone else is asleep."

Jumping into the air I followed Spectre as he led me far from the small patch of forest that the exiles used as their home and into the mountains that always seemed so far off in the distance. But my mind was far from the idea of where I was going, aside from my position behind Spectre I had no clue where I was. My dream kept replaying in my head over and over, my heart beat speeding up each time it began again.

"Dark!" Spectre called pulling me out of my thoughts, "whatever you're thinking about can you please stop. It's making your aura go crazy and it's making me feel sick."

With a quick nod I pushed the dream from my mind, turning my attention to following Spectre. We flew for a long while before we came close to the mountains. The mountains rose high into the sky and cast long shadows over the land behind them, Spectre and I picked up speed now that our destination was nearby and we both could use the stability of solid ground to rest.

"Alright the way in is over here." Spectre called back to me as he snaked his long body into a large opening in the wall of the mountain.

Following him in he led me through a long dark winding tunnel filled with stalagmites and stalactites alike. I was almost expecting to get caught in a swarm of bats as we came to the tunnels end and entered into a cavern that looked as if someone had excavated it by hand. A small waterfall poured in a the far end of the cavern creating a shallow river that surrounded a large stone island rimmed with columns that extended to the cavern's roof which had an opening from which light poured into the room. I was taken aback by the unexpected natural beauty of the room and at Specter's luck to have found such a place.

"You've calmed down, good." Spectre said as we landed on the small stone island, not even bothering to look back at me.

"How the hell did you find this place?" I asked, just to get the question out.

"I asked, those who've decided not to pass on know about some pretty cool places if you can get them to talk about them." Spectre replied turning to me, " no first things first, I want you to get as calm as you possibly can. Meditate." He ordered, with a sort of kind drill sergeant flair.

I immediately cocked an eyebrow, glancing around nervously since I knew I had little to no clue how to meditate, calling upon what I could gather from my memory I sat down Indian style.

"Ok, I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. Any instructions to offer?" I asked, sighing deeply.

I know now after seeing the way Spectre shook his head in disappointment that I may have been the first person to ever witness the dragon equivalent of a facepalm.

"Just close your eyes and focus on your own natural breathing, and that means you're breathing that you don't will to happen." Spectre instructed, uttering a low growl of annoyance. More importantly the only real growl he'd ever directed toward me.

With a frightened sense of necessary haste I closed my eyes and did what Spectre instructed. I focused in on my breathing and tried to slowly stop myself from willing the breaths I took. At first the lack of lung response caused me so much discomfort that I felt like I was suffocating and had to take a breath by will, and it continued that way for a while. But eventually after maybe a half hour of trying I found myself barely breathing and at a degree of calm I'd never been at before.

"Alright, now we can start." Spectre spoke softly as I opened my eyes.

"What's different now that I'm so calm?" I asked not understanding the need for the meditation.

"A calm mind is quiet, and a quiet mind is open to learn." Spectre answered with sensei-like delivery.

"Most epic line from a dragon I've ever heard…" I thought to myself, nodding slowly.

"Anyway, if I'm going to teach you about aura I should make sure you can see them. It makes the process much easier." Spectre announced as he stretched his long flowing whiskers out toward me, "hold still."

He touched his whiskers on my temples and closed his eyes. Tiny pulses of light raced down his whiskers and into my body, causing my eyes to twitch. I closed my eye tightly for a few seconds then opened them again, but I couldn't see anything more than I could before.

"I don't think it worked." I doubted, looking around as Spectre pulled his whiskers back.

"Give it a few seconds to take effect." Spectre nodded, backing away from me.

With a quick shrug I stood and waited for something to happen, but as far as I could tell I hadn't been granted any special vision that allowed me to see auras. I was about to tell Spectre it hadn't worked again when I rose my hand into view and noticed gray light flowing around it. I looked at my other hand and it was there too, unsure I turned to Spectre.

"So this is my aur-damn…" the sight of Spectre's aura stole my words. It spread out from his body several feet and while it what neon green close to his body as it spread out it changed to a shade of lavender slightly lighter than his scales.

"Yeah that's you aura, and from the look on your face it seems you find mine impressive." Spectre replied with a smile.

"well compared to you I have no aura, I thought you said that my aura was powerful?" I asked somewhat offended that my aura looked so weak.

"Don't judge strength by size, your aura is still strong. But since your calm right now, your aura is calm and sticking close to you. If you were angry, you're aura could potentially fill this room." Spectre advised as I walked over to the river.

I peered down at the water's surface, examining my reflection in the water. I could see that my aura did seem to cling to my body as I moved, but as felt myself growing more annoyed I saw my aura begin to grow more and more agitated.

"Hey, chill out and stay calm." Spectre advised behind me.

"Have you done this before or something, because you seem like a good teacher?" I asked turning to him.

"yes and no…" Spectre chuckled looking away for a moment before looking me in the eye, "so, want to hear why I ended up an exile before we continue to the real training?"


	22. Spectre part two

"How does you looking like a natural born teacher of this stuff have to do with you becoming an exile?" I asked Spectre eyeing him curiously.

"Hey, if you don't want to hear the story you don't have to. No reason to tell my life story to someone who doesn't want to hear it." Spectre scoffed, beginning to turn away.

"Alright, go ahead and tell your damn story. It'll be good to know more about you." I said defeated.

"I knew you'd want to listen." Spectre laughed softly facing me again, "now, where to begin…"

"The beginning would be nice." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"Alright then, well back in my tribe of spirit dragons we had one rule. As soon as any young dragon was old enough to be taught they had to learn how to communicate with and enter the world of spirits. Now as luck would have it was decided that I was capable of learning when I was only about three years old, I'm only about seventy-five now." Spectre began, "Anyway my training began in a much similar way to yours, the key to communing with the spirit world being mastering one's aura. My teacher was one of the older dragons in the tribe, a huge sky blue guy that was about five times my size when space wasn't an issue, but his control of his aura was so precise he could bring himself down to my size in a matter of minutes. I was his star pupil, he said I had just the right amount of focus and open mindedness to learn the ways f our kind." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.

" over the course of a few short months I had mastered my aura, where all those who were learning alongside me had barely reached my level. At this point my teacher decided to have me assist in teaching the other dragons, and they welcomed the help because everyone loved my personality. Of course my teacher gave me private instruction on the next stage of the process, learning to communicate with the spirit world through dreams and meditation. Another two years and I had mastered communication through dreams, and another three to master communicating through meditation."

"Sounds like you're quite the natural." I interrupted with a nod.

"Damn right I am! Anyway the final step that I had to learn was entering the spirit world, my teacher couldn't believe that in a little over five years I had hit a point that some didn't reach for a decade. But he told me that I couldn't hope to attain a mastery of the next level of my learning in under ten years. He was right though, it took me ten years and nine months to finish that level of my training. Once the news got out that I had learned all that I had needed to learn I became the pride of the tribe. I became the youngest teacher in the history of our species, and for 50 years it stayed that way." Spectre continued, sighing deeply.

"Here's where things went south then?" I asked taking a seat on the ground.

"Yeah…there was this one dragon in the tribe who no one really talked to, you know the village maniac type. Well one day I met him, he was a really run down excuse for a dragon, dull scales broken horns and teeth. In fact if I remember right he was missing patches of scales all along his body. When we met he told me that I hadn't learned everything there is to know about communing with the world of spirits or the uses of one's aura. He told me there was a way that didn't require countless hours of meditation, but it was dangerous. But being the confident and curious dragon I was I asked him to show me. We left the tribe together and found a quiet secluded area, and then out of nowhere the freak attacked me."

"I think I can see where this is going, he nearly kills you so you have a near death experience right." I asked Spectre, my mind putting the pieces together.

"Exactly, I almost died and entered the spirit world for the first time as someone who almost belonged there, but I was immediately thrust back into my body when the old dragon healed me. He explained to me how your aura could be used as a weapon or a tool of healing and that someone who has truly become a spirit once can do it again at any time with enough practice. After that day the old guy disappeared and I went on training to do what you told me I could. It took me a few months but I got to the point where I could separate my spirit from my body whenever I wanted and I learned how to freely control my aura for multiple uses. But when I went to tell my old teacher what I'd accomplished he was shocked and immediately consulted the elders of our tribe."

"They decided to kick you out. That stinks."

"Actually they gave me a choice because I was so highly respected in the tribe. I could both forget everything the tribe outcast had taught me and stop instructing the younger dragons or they would have to exile me for breaking the teaching of the tribe. I didn't feel I deserved to be restricted for wanting to learn so I left and never looked back. Shortly after that I met Tidus and Sabre and became a part of the exiles."

"That's definitely better than what I was thinking, but it sucks to lose all the respect you gained over the years." I nodded as I pushed myself to my feet, "but let's get back to my training now…wait you're not going to pull a surprise kill on me are you?"

"No, there's no need to go that far." Spectre laughed, shaking his head. "Alright now, try and will some of your aura to move from your body and hang between us in a ball."

With a slight shrug of acknowledgement I lifted my hand into view and watched as my aura flowed tightly around it. Squinting, I imagined seeing my aura stream off of my hand and roll into a ball before hovering its way between Spectre and I, then quickly focused on the idea. My aura reacted simply by expanding slightly so that it appeared to rise several inches off of my skin, a bit troubled at the fact I relaxed my focus then looked a Spectre who watched me like a hawk.

"No advice oh wise sensei?" I asked jokingly glancing from my hand back to Spectre.

"Sure, concentrate on your training hatchling." Spectre snapped in response. "And don't try too hard."

"Don't try too hard?" I analyzed the advice in my mind, staring at my pale gray aura.

I took a deep breath, guessing Spectre meant that focus wasn't the key to controlling your aura. I took a look around the cavern, while I thought of a solution to my problem when my eyes stopped on the stream of water that flowed around our little stone island. A single out of place stone had made its way into the water's edge and diverted some of the water up onto the island only to have the water flow right around and back into the main flow of the stream.

"Maybe trying to force is pointless…" I thought, changing my approach to the task at hand.

This time instead of thinking along the lines of 'aura go this way', I was thinking 'my aura has a new path of flow'. With that simple change of thought my aura slowly began flowing toward Spectre and when it stretched out between the two of us I cut "the path" and some of my aura hung in the air between Spectre and I.

"So it's more of a 'this is what you can do now' than 'do this' type of thing?" I thought aloud.

"Something like that." Spectre nodded in approval.

"So if I think, you can form a ball…" I thought, watching as the portion of my aura swirled together and formed a globular ball.

"Good, you've kind of got it figured out. Now bring it back to you and repeat the process, only put more of your aura into the ball. Make it about the size you'd make one of those blasts in a fight." Spectre ordered.

Bringing the aura ball back to me took a couple of shots to get the thought right, but once I got it down I withdrew it easily. As Spectre instructed I made another aura ball immediately after, this one the size of a beach ball.

"Now make an energy ball inside of the aura ball then use the aura ball to compress it, like this." Spectre instructed, effortlessly creating an aura ball with a large green ball of flames inside it. With little more than a squint of his eyes he squeezed the flame down to the size of a marble, nodding in satisfaction as he shifted his gaze to me.

"Showoff…" I muttered as I easily created an energy ball within the aura ball.

AS I began to compress the aura around the energy I found it a bit more difficult than I expected. It seemed like though my aura I could feel the energy fighting to not be forcibly compressed, but even with this minor resistance I soon squeezed the energy down to the same size as Spectre's flame. I wasn't satisfied with just matching Spectre though, so I continued to compress the energy ball until its shape distort to one more like a star in the night sky or a spark.

"You got it, but don't you think that's a little too small to do anything?" Spectre asked.

"that depends on whether it works the way I plan it should. " I shrugged as I walked over to the small spark of energy and put my hand under it.

As any other energy created would the sparks hovered just above my palm and followed the motion of my hand; with a smirk and a nod i thrust it up and out of the whole in the top of the cavern. As the small spark faded from sight I snapped my fingers and waited, a moment later a small explosion sent small rock fragment falling into the cavern coupled with a somewhat familiar roar of pain.

"Alright, it works." I nodded in satisfaction.

"Hmm, that's a very deceptive trick you just thought up." Spectre commented, moving toward the water. "I never really thought to release the pressure on any energy I ever did that to."

"Well as far as I can tell you spirit dragons don't seem like the innovative type of fighters." I said cracking my neck as Spectre took a drink, "so what's next?"

"To be honest, I really haven't come up with any other use for my aura in combat besides controlling the shape of energy. Like you said my kind aren't combat creative." Spectre admitted, looking toward the waterfall as he paused to think, "Have you ever had a near death experience?"

"Not sure…I think I came close once or twice. My memory hasn't exactly been clear since I've come to this time." I replied Spectre's aura slowly fading from my view, "and just so you know whatever you did to me before it wore off."

"Well it was never supposed to be permanent, my soul charge trick is a little thing I thought up to impart some of my abilities onto another living creature. And I have another trick that can tell us if you've had a near death experience before." Spectre explained, slowly rising off the ground as he circled around the cavern around me.

"Why do I get the feeling this is going to hurt…" I muttered as I watched Spectre round the cavern again, faster than the last time around.

Without warning Spectre broke his circle and came right for me his claws glowing purple, as he raked them through my body, but it hurt a lot less than I was expecting.

"What the he'll was that for?" I asked, now standing a few feet behind my original spot.

"Well, you've definitely had something close to a near death experience. Usually a sprit loosens its resistance to removal after someone nearly dies, and yours didn't resist much at all." Spectre explained, ignoring my question.

"Wait…you mean you pulled my spirit out of my body?" I asked looking at myself, not feeling any different.

"Well I'm sure your body can't be lying on the ground when you're standing right there normally, right" Spectre pointed out his gaze shifting slightly past me.

I followed Spectre's gaze and turned around, my soulless body lying on the ground right in front of me. In shock I stepped over my body, I was still breathing but my eyes seemed empty and gazed up at the roof of the cavern aimlessly.

"This is really weird…" I mumbled, uneasy.

"If you think that's weird wait until I send you to the spirit world." Spectre said with a smile as his eyes began to glow a shimmering purplish green.

"Whoa, hold on!" I yelled as Spectre blew a jet of purple flame that spiraled out in front of me. It seemed that the flames stopped just before they hit me, but just as I let my guard down the began to suck me toward them.

"Don't worry, there's someone who wants to talk to you. He'll show you around, so just go with it."

"Spiraling spirit flame portal equals one way trip to hell!" I protested, barely able to resist the pull of the flames.

"Nah, this place is more like heaven but not quite the same thing. Have fun." Spectre laughed as the flames finally pulled me in.

"You bastard!" I called out just before disappearing.

The portal seemed to be nothing but a continuously lengthening coil of flames to guide my winding path to the spirit world. Eventually the portal spit me out on the edge of what appeared to be a forest, but not the type of forest you'd expect to see just anywhere. The trees in this forest were chalk white with silver and gold leaves, the grass, although just as delicate as the grass in the living world, was as red as and ruby.

"What the hell?" I thought as I looked around, unwittingly walking forward.

"Even as a spirit you smell like my sister… you must be dark." A voice commented from within the trees.

"Who's there?" I asked, freezing where I was.

"No need to go on the offensive, I only want to talk." The voice said again as a white wolf stepped out from the trees, his dark teal eyes looking me over. "My name is Tang, I'm Sabre's brother."

"Really? Cool nice to meet you…" I began as one of his previous remarks came to mind, "you can really smell Sabre on my spirit?"

"I think it has something to do with you two becoming such close friends so quickly. You have my thanks for helping her out with Uro and his brothers." Tang nodded as he turned away motioning with his tail for me to follow, "you know, my sisters is one who never liked accepting help. But I guess we have no one to blame but our mother, she raised us against the general way of the wolf. She made sure both of us needed our pack after we needed ourselves. "

"So you were raised to be loners?" I asked, interested to learn about Sabre's past.

"You can say that, Sabre took to it well and became the she wolf she is today, I on the other hand developed a deadening confidence in myself. Looking back it's completely my fault I'm dead." Tang growled, annoyed. " if only I had used my skill and power to become the alpha of our pack Sabre wouldn't be living the life she's living now, and I wouldn't be stuck watching her from the spirit world."

"All things considered tang, you were the alpha of your pack. And you were murdered by an ambitious overconfident mutt." I commented, looking around as we exited the forest.

The forest ended just outside of tall white wall that seemed to stretch far beyond my whether I looked left or right. "This is the wall that protects this part of the spirit world where everyone consider to be honorable enough for redemption goes while they're life is looked over by the angels. Depending on what the angels decide one may have to work for their entry into heaven, or be granted it immediately. They call it salva sector, and it is currently ruled by a former light dragoness named Lily." Tang explained as he continued on to the right for awhile until he came to a clear path through the forest.

When I joined tang on the path he stared into the distance, he glanced up at me for a moment then continued to stare. Turning to face the same direction I saw what he was staring at, a tall ominous tower rose into the sky far into the distance. At some point far down the path the forest and grass died away leaving nothing but dry withered trunks and rust colored earth, the sky itself even seemed to be split. Above salva sector a pleasant blue sky but above this other area, a crimson sky filled with dark clouds.

"That is sin sector, those who lived evil lives, and as I'm told they do mean truly evil lives, go there. Luckily as a someone living in salva sector I can't go there under my own power, but they say that over there while you can still work for your redemption, you also live in a place where it's kill or be killed. They say that everyone who goes to sin sector can only find piece by being immensely strong or dead. " Tang explained again, the wolf taking a few steps back. "let's go, it's not a good idea to hang around here too long according to rumors."

"What rumors?" I asked looking down at the wolf.

"They say Regulus, the current ruler of sin sector is skilled in magic, and is good enough that he can freely get his servants past the barrier between sin and salva sector. They say that if he's able to catch someone that he outs them in his own coliseum to fight for his entertainment, and your life depends on how entertaining you are."

"Ok, then we should go." I said pulling a 180 on my heels.

"Actually from the looks of things your time here is up for now." Tang said looking to the sky behind me.

"What do you me-" I began as a giant spectral claw grabbed me from behind and yanked me off the ground.

The claw pulled me into a portal so fast that I didn't even have notice I had passed through one. Back in the cavern the claw slammed me onto my body, reconnect my soul to it. I jolted upright upon reconnection with my body, breathing in deeply then coughing hard as pebbles and stones fell from overhead.

"Hey Dark, I think you pissed someone of with that little trick you came up with earlier whoever it is they're trying to get in through the opening in the cave. I can't fight in here if we get caught so let's go." Spectre advised as he flew toward the tunnel out of the cavern.

I fought through the shock of suddenly being flesh and bone again, following Spectre through the tunnel. Once outside we both hung in the air several hundred feet away from the tunnels entrance.

"Thanks for making the whole spirit world experience a smooth ride Spectre…"I gasped in annoyance.

"Would you rather have your body back in that cavern where it couldn't defend itself?" Spectre shot back as he looked around.

"Well what was that thing coming after me anyway? Couldn't you tell from its aura?" I asked rolling my shoulders and stretching.

"I can't tell what something is from its aura alone…but whatever it was it was strong. And now that I think of it did seem kind of-" Spectre began suddenly throwing his attention upward as a small boulder collided with him, knocking him from the sky.

"Spectre!" I called to him, flying down after him.

As I chased after Spectre I suddenly found myself covered by the shadow of something big, and before I could turn to see what it was it dealt me a heavy blow across the back of my head. The blow stunned me, and I fell toward the ground.

"who the hell?" I thought as I hit the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust around me. Not too far away I felt a heavy thud as whatever attacked me landed on the ground. "this is going to suck…"


	23. Breaking point

I pushed myself up off the ground slowly, glancing around through the dust cloud around me in hope of spotting Spectre. Instead of Spectre himself I spotted the boulder that had hit him and went over to it, near the boulder the serpentine dragon laid knocked out but otherwise seemed fine. I breathed a sigh of relief just as a chill ran down my spine, realizing that my attacker had his eyes locked on me.

"Who the hell…are- what the hell?" I stammered turning around to see what I thought was zero standing across from me. "What the hell is wrong with you? Aren't we your-"I was cut off by a powerful roar.

"I don't know who you think I am but you clearly don't understand the situation you're in." the mystery dragon said to me in a voice much rougher and intimidating than Zero's.

"if you're not zero then why the hell are you attacking my friend and me?" I snapped at the dragon the dust beginning to settle around me, giving me a clearer view of my attacker. He did resemble zero, but only in the coloration of his scales. Otherwise they were almost completely different. Zero's scales were smooth, and his horns were spotless, almost as if he'd never had them touched in battle. This dragon's scales were rough and jagged, almost as if it were meant to tear you apart at the slightest touch, and its horns were cracked and hack several hacked out pieces as if they'd been used to block blades of some sort. This dragon also had a number of clearly visible scars all over his body, and to top it all off he was bigger than zero all together.

"My master sent me to retrieve you; I'd appreciate it if you made this easy and just came with me." The dragon said glaring at me with green eyes that defied his intimidating looks.

"That depends…who's your master?" I asked, almost sure of what his answer would be.

"Master Regulus ruler of Sin Sector, one of his scouts saw you and he believes you'd make an excellent entertainer. Being his servant I have to bring you back or take your fate upon myself, and despite how much I hate my master I'd rather not be in any more of his events." The dragon answered glancing away for a moment, "Now will you come?"

"What do you think?" I shot back, growing a blade from my arm. Without thinking I charged at him, expecting things to deteriorate into a fight either way.

"Thanks for making things easy. Wraith bridge." The dragon said with a nod.

"Shit, I got close without knowing what he could do." I cursed my impulsiveness as the dragons body seemed to fade from view leaving a silhouette through which I could see directly into what looked like a prison cell.

It was too late to stop, not that I didn't try, but that only served to make me trip into the dragon's portal. I fell about a foot to the ground of the prison cell, the portal closing as I turned and looked up at it. I turned again to see the dragon standing just behind the bars of the cell; glancing out of the corners of my eye I noticed that I wasn't alone. There were several others in my cell but I kept my eyes locked on the dragon, glaring at him as if that alone could change my situation.

"I can see it in your eyes, you'll be one to keep an eye on." The dragon said to himself as he walked away.

"Damn it…" I hissed slamming a fist into the ground.

"All things considered you could be much worse off." A voice said to me. It was one of my cell mates, a strange looking creature resembling a praying mantis that had evolved to be more human. "This is one of the quiet cells, if you had been placed in most of any others you'd already be fighting for your life."

"No offense but what the hell are you?" I asked, sure I had never actually put a race of humanoid insects on Natura.

"I was once a normal human on Natura who was killed during a hunt by a giant mantis in the overgrown forest in which my people lived. I was important among my people so once they had killed the mantis our shaman used it in a ritual to bring me back to life and I was reborn in this body. This body granted me the greater strength than I initially had as a normal man but it still wasn't enough to save my village from a giant's rampage. I could not translate my name once I learned to speak this way so I now go by the name of my form." The creature replied nodding slightly.

"So mantis then?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yes."

"Can you two shut up, I need my rest. We all do if we're chosen as a part of today's entertainment." Another voice said behind me.

I turned again; this one was apparently a demon. He had blue skin and was fairly muscular, his teeth were sharp and a few of them remained visible when his mouth was closed. His yellow eyes had an almost eerie feel as he stared at Mantis and I, his expression showing a heavy loss of patience.

"I'm sorry Seraph, but you never talk." Mantis apologized from behind me.

Seraph grunted and closed his eyes, lowering his head as he tried to get more sleep. I glanced away from him to the corner to my right; a young woman was leaning up against the wall and seemed to be sleeping within a barrier of her own creation. Her clothes were tattered seemed to be shredded everywhere that wasn't revealing I found that fact odd and whispered to Mantis.

"Who's she?"

"Ah, her. She is the rumored champion of the sin sector, not that she has ever beaten the strongest of opponents, but she's never actually been hurt. I don't know her name though; she's always sleeping whenever she's not fighting so I've never actually had a chance to speak with her." Mantis explained, "And that protective bubble of her's ensures that no one can wake her or attack her. Very lucky for her since most abilities don't work within these cells."

I blinked in surprise when he mentioned power not being able to work, I immediately tried to create a ball of dark energy in my hand but nothing happened. Then I looked at the bars of the cell and wondered if they were made of metal, that in mind I tried to grow a blade from my arm but that failed as well.

"Wait a minute…" I though as I looked myself over, remembering the wounds I had picked up during my day with Sabre. They were all healed, including these arm I had seal with metal after that wolf had nearly shredded my arm. "Why didn't I notice that earlier?"

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of feet coming down the corridor outside of the cell. I heard the footsteps stop and all of a sudden I could hear the roars and cries of either a wounded animal, or a rabid one I couldn't tell, but as I heard the footsteps come closer I could hear more shouted roar screeches and screams.

"They're picking today's entertainment." Seraph growled without raising his head.

"I wish they didn't have to take the sound barrier spelldown to take the day's choices. I like the quiet we have in here." Mantis sighed as two large beast-men stepped up in front of our cell. They both had the faces of tigers with muscular bodies to match.

A figure clothed in a tall dark robe stepped up behind the beast-men, and then they all turned and looked into the cell. The figure was almost as wide as both beast-men put together, and easily a foot taller than them.

"Take the human and the woman." A deep, almost baritone voice ordered as the bars of the cell rose up.

Being in the center of the room I glanced back at the girl turning back as the two beast-men lifted me to my feet. As one of the beast-men tried to step past me to the woman in the corner I punched it in the stomach, winding him. The other beast-man growled as he threw me into the wall beside an unmoving Seraph, but leaving my movement unrestricted was a mistake as the beast-man found out when I knocked him off his feet with an uppercut. I turned to the figure in the robe, he simply laughed as I glanced back at the woman again.

"Go ahead and laugh, I can't use my powers but a good punch is just as good." I spat as I leapt toward the figure and punched where I thought his stomach was. I lifted the figure of the ground with the force from my blow, and I waited for him to topple over once I drew back my feet.

The robed figure coughed hard but started to chuckle darkly as it straightened and raised a skinny bony finger at me. I was suddenly thrust against the back wall of the cell and felt the impact of a punch knock the wind from my body; as I fell to my knees I could hear the figure 's chuckle grow into a laugh, the two beast-men getting back to their feet.

"Forget the woman; I think this human will be much more entertaining than I thought." The figure ordered, the beast men picking me up and dragging me out of the cell. As they did I glanced back at the woman in the corner, her eyes opened for a moment and she looked directly at me, closing her eyes again once we broke eye contact.

The beast-man continued to drag me throughout a series of corridors, the robed figure whom I'd taken to be a male of whatever species claimed him, had separated at some point. I managed to get myself to the point where I was walking along with the beast-men instead of being dragged by them until we came to a small room and they tossed me inside.

I waited in the room for what I figured were hours, the faint sounds of cheering and the occasional tremor being the only real items of interest for me while in the room. After a long while the far wall of the small room began to open, the smell of blood and the light but sickening smell of decaying flesh filling my nose. I gagged as the wall opened up to what looked like a demonic version of the roman coliseum in its prime, a huge circular ring accented by large metal plates in the shape of twisted demonic skeletons wearing necklaces of bone placed at regular intervals along each of its levels. The arena was covered in blood and bones with a few decaying pieces of flesh strewn about the ground.

"Damn…this is just nasty." I thought shaking my head as I walked out into the center of the arena.

The upper levels were filled with more demons than ever imagined could be in one spot along with other creatures that occasionally popped up. The spectators booed loudly as a stood in the center of the ring on my own, looking around expectantly.

"My people I Give you our newest competitor in the Arena of Sin, let's see how long he lasts against one of our old favorites." The robed figure's voice called out above the booing of the crowd, "I, Regulus, present…The Beast."

Once the introduction was complete a section of the ring opened up and a small girl, no bigger than an eight year old walked out as the crowd cheered. The little girl was wearing a little black dress, had silver and had pale skin; her eyes, even at a distance, were a notable shade of red.

"She looks like a mini Vixen…" I thought to myself as a chill went down my back, "But I can't fight a kid, especially not a little girl."

"Are you ready?" the girl asked me as she walked up a creepy smile on her face.

"I'm not fighting a little girl." I stated firmly trying to pick out Regulus' hiding place in the crowd, "I refuse to fight a little girl." I shouted once I spotted him, earning a laugh from the crowd.

"That's exactly what I expected, but if you value your life I'm sure you'll change your mind." Regulus called down to me, motioning for me to turn around.

Before I could even consider acknowledging Regulus motion I felt something wrap around my waist. I looked down to se e a thick braid of silver hair as it pulled me off my feet and threw me across the arena, directly into one of the skull plates. I hit the ground stunned, pain resonating in my back as I fought to stand up.

"If you're not fighting back then try not to die to quick okay they only treat me nice when I put on a good show." The little girl giggled a bit as I looked up at her, her hair rising up around her as if it were alive.

"Okay so she's not the cute little girl I thought she was…but I can't just fight her." I thought to myself as I got upright, my back still hot with pain.

"Good, now let's play a little more." The little girl chirped as her hair lashed out towards me.

Cursing that I had to run before my back could recover more I took off around the perimeter of the arena's inner ring. I kept my eye on the girl and she kept her eyes on me as her hair chased me around the arena; above us the crowd booed loudly, the little girl clearly growing annoyed. On the ground around her bones began to rattle as her expression darkened.

"Damn, she's not telekinetic is she?" I thought, turning so that I was running directly toward the girl.

The girl's expression changed to a look of shock as I launched a large but weak blast of dark energy at her. She somehow managed to wrap herself in her hair just before the blast hit, shielding herself in a giant hairball. After the blast the girl freed herself from the hairball and looked around, only to have me grab her by the hair.

"Now let's just get rid of this shall we?" I said as I grew a blade from my arm and cut the girls hair. "There now you can't fight me."

"Y-you cut my hair?" the girl said in disbelief as she turned to me, teary eyed. She stared at me for a moment then fell to her knees and cried, the bones around us shaking again as she yelled out, "I hate you."

I dropped the mass of hair I had cut off the girls head and backed up slowly, the air around the girls became like a misty aura as banshee like specters appeared and swirled around her. As the girl continued to cry her hair grew back even longer than it was before I had cut it and the specters flew into the bones on the ground, then the bones began to gather together to form a giant dog.

"Fucking bitch…what is this kid?" I muttered as I dove out of the way of the dog's paws.

"Get him Toto!" the little girl cried as she stood up and glared at me, her eyes glowing red.

The bone dog barked, or more like roared as it leapt at me. I jumped into the air and stayed there as the dog looked up at me, I felt something grab my legs and knew it was the girl's hair as she swung me around, releasing me toward the crowd. Without warning I hit some type of barriers protecting the crowd, the barriers nearly frying me with electricity before throwing me back toward the girl and the dog.

The dog opened its jaws, ready to bite down as soon as I landed in its mouth, but luckily for me body was getting used to recovering from these things. When I neared the dog's mouth I had just enough of a clue to where I was to strike back, spinning in the air and punching the dog's snout. My fist easily broke through the bones that made up the dog's nose, but the same easy resulted in my hand getting stuck there. The dog snarled as it pawed its nose, trying to knock me loose only to have the girl use her hair to pull me free before slamming me into the ground.

"Okay that's it, time for this girl to learn a thing or two." I thought as I jumped back to my feet.

Once again the girl tried grabbing me with her air, her hair wrapped around my arm but I was ready for it. Before she could throw me a grabbed her and spun around, taking the girl off her feet as I swung her over ahead and e cut her hair so she'd hit the arena wall. From behind me I could hear the dog ready it's paw for a strike, spinning again I aimed a handed toward it.

"G-pulse." I said as I fired a burst of gravitational force at the dog throw it against the arena wall as well.

I glanced at my two enemies for a moment, waling to a position where the girl was on my left and the dog was on my right.

"Hex cannon…" I muttered as I held the attack in my left hand, "Crisis flash."

I stretched my arms straight out, a hex cannon ready in my left hand and a beam of dark energy ready to be fired from my right. I glanced toward the girl again, she was starting to get back up, but the only thing I could think was she should've stayed sown.

"Nighty-night princess." I chuckled as I launched both attacks.

I hadn't realized it yet but at this point the crowd of demons was silent, one half drenched in red light, the other covered in shadow as my attacks obscured the entire arena floor. Only when my attacks had subsided did the crowd begin to cheer, a standing ovation for me victory. Or so they thought. I saw through the dust my attacks had thrown up a burned but intact ball of hair; almost instinctively a blade grew from my forearm and I was charging toward the hairball. As I approached the hair fell away from the little girl her hair a little shorter than it's normal length and burned at its end, and her face frozen in shock. But still I kept running for to deal my deathblow, earning a scream from the girl as I stepped within three feet of her.

"What am I doing?" I asked myself, the girl's scream reawakening my humanity. But it returned to late.

I could feel my heart drop as I felt blood run my fist and arm, as I looked down my eyes widened in shock and disgust. I had stabbed her just below her ribs, my blade buried in the wall behind her. Her feet weren't touching they ground and worst of all, she wasn't dead yet. I could her gasping in pain, maybe shock as well. She looked up at me, oh God; she looked me right in the eyes with tears streaming down her face.

"T-they said if I did a good job then they…they'd let me see my mom again, but then… I-I li-liked the k-killing so I kept doing it… I'm sorry." The girl said between gasps.

"I-damn it…what's your name?" I asked, at a loss for any meaningful words.

"Ni-Nina…" the girl muttered as what little strength she had left faded, "Am I…going to hell?"

"No, of course not." I shot back as Nina's eyes closed, a tiny smile forming on her face as the last of her strength left her.

Still somewhat in shock I withdrew my blade into my arm, catching Nina's body and laying it on the ground. I hadn't even realized that I was crying until I saw the tears hit the ground, not even bothering to wipe them away as another stunning realization hit me, the crowd was still cheering. They were actually cheering louder. I clenched my fist tightly as I felt rage build up within me, demons or not I wasn't allowing this kind of disrespect.

"Why the hell are you cheering?" I shouted as loud as my lungs would allow, releasing a column of dark energy into the sky. The crowd fell silent as my display shook the arena, even as I had to cut off the attack the all stared down at me silently. I fell to my knees staring at my hands for a moment before looking to the sky, "If anyone with half a heart is up there watching, if you can do something about this. Do it! Bring her back; put her soul in a new body, anything! Just don't let her go to hell because of me…"

"Well done human, I knew you wouldn't disappoint me. Bring in his next opponent." Regulus ordered as another section of the wall opened up.

"you really think that I'm going to 'entertain' you again?" I thought as I closed my eyes, and started laughing softly.


	24. Arrena of sin: Day 1

I sat on my knees near the middle of the arena, my eyes still closed as I laughed softly. There wasn't anything funny, nothing to provide me with the slightest bit of pleasure. It was more like I felt something within me shift with the intense hatred that was burning in my heart, I hated myself for killing Nina, I hated the crowd for cheering me on as I did it, but mostly I hated Regulus for thinking for one moment that I'd fight for his pleasure so soon after Nina's death.

I was brought out of my trance by a soft hissing, slowly opening my eye to take in my surroundings once more. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a snake-like tail slither out of sight, the fact caught my interest, but I still had no real intention of fighting whatever they'd chosen to fight me. I heard the hiss again as I once again saw a snake-like form inch into view, but it was clear that it wasn't actually a snake as slowly turned my attention to the creature. I slowly brought my gaze up the creatures form, going from a snakes tail, scales giving way to a more human torso before reaching scale covered breast. I brought my gaze back down then knowing what my opponent was.

"A gorgon, huh?" I thought to myself as I stood up, my eyes still aimed at the ground. The crowd began to boo once more as I stood and waited for the gorgon to come to me.

"What are you waiting for? If he won't fight you then kill him!" Regulus roared above the crowd's booing.

The gorgon obeyed and made its way toward me, slithering right up to me before it began to circle around again.

"If you don't want to fight, why not just look into my eyes. It'll be quick and painless then we both get what we want." The gorgon hissed into my ear as it began to coil its tail around my legs.

"So then, if I look at your eyes, I won't instantly turn to stone?" I asked my eyes now closed just in case the gorgon tried something.

"It takes time for flesh to turn to stone boy." The gorgon hissed back, bringing its face close to my own. I could feel the snakes that formed the creature's hair brushing against my face as I smiled a little, a plan forming in my mind.

"Good, then I guess I can take what I want after all." I grunted as I jerked my head back and head butted the gorgon.

The serpentine creature hissed in pain and uncoiled its tail from around me, my eye snapping open and the creature slunk away to recover. But it wasn't part of my plan for that to happen; I walked over to the gorgon and struck it in the head, knocking it to the ground. As the gorgon rolled itself over to look at me I extended a metal spike from my forearm and drove it into the gorgon's tail, anchoring it in place as I out me knee on its chest and glanced at its eyes for a split second before averting my gaze.

"So you things have nice eyes after all…" I chuckled as the gorgon writhed and hissed under me, "I think I'll take them."

I reached to the gorgon's face and covered its eyes; I could already feel my legs stiffening up and didn't want to speed the process up while I worked. I slowly brought my free hand down, extending tiny metal tendrils from my fingertips as I reached for the gorgon's left eye. As I hovered my hand just over the eye I had the tendril wriggle under the gorgon's eyelids, steadily having them wrap around the eye until I was able to pull it out. The eye left the gorgon's skull with a disturbing pop and I quickly set about doing the same to its right eye, my legs already turned to stone.

"It'd be quite unfortunate if this doesn't work..." A thought of doubt entered my mind as I held both of the gorgon's eyes in my hand, the nerves still connected to the gorgon's head. With a somewhat sadistic smile I drained the energy from the gorgon's body through its eyes, watching as the gorgon found it harder and harder to writhe in its pain. I didn't kill it though, when I felt like I'd taken most of the gorgon's energy and its ability to petrify other creatures I yanked its eyes off the nerves and drained them till they turned to dust.

"Good I can move my legs again." I thought to myself noticing that my legs had returned to normal," Where did that idea even come from? Was I able to do this before?" I added in a moment of rational thought, but it was short lived as I looked at the gorgon's now eyeless, save for the snakes that made up its hair, body still weakly writhing in sightless pain.

I sat down again and watched the gorgon struggle, some part of me overriding the senses that would have made me sick watching the scene. But my show was interrupted as a fireball shot down from within the crowd and incinerated the gorgon's body. I turned up to see Regulus standing, arm outstretched, his black bony fingers connecting to a powerful looking hand glaring down at me. The crowd was silent as he took a step forward, a low strained growl escaping from his mouth yet hidden in that robe.

"You dare make a mockery of my arena? I'll make you fight for me yet human; send in that worthless son of mine!" He roared, motioning to something behind him.

I could only chuckle at the outburst, but then another plan came to me. A plan fueled not only by my unnatural desire to tearing something apart and the rational desire for vengeance.

"Six days…" I called up to Regulus, focusing my gaze on him, "you get six more days of entertainment before I kill you."

No reply came from Sin sectors kings as yet another section of wall rose up, from it stepped a creature just a bit taller than me, it had pitch black skin and glowing blue slits for eyes, it had a highly defined muscles although it was only of a medium build, and it's long arms ended in long clawed fingers. I cracked my neck as I rolled my shoulders, I was in the mood for a slaughter but somehow I knew I wouldn't be getting it.

"You will never live six days to see that happen human. Caius, kill him." Regulus spat, turning and sitting back in his seat.

Caius looked down for a moment, and then looked me in the eye. He nodded, to which I hesitantly nodded back, and then he came at me like a bolt of lightning. He wasn't so fast that I couldn't see him, but his speed caught me off guard and I was barely able to react fast enough to avoid an upward swipe of his claws. As he swung again I was able to block the blow, and as I gauged his strength I found he was about half as strong as I was but his speed made up for that more than well enough. Caius jumped back then came at me again, swiping at me wildly with his claws. Even though I guarded myself I only avoided critical damage, but little by little Caius was digging into my arms with his claws.

For this the crowd cheered, happy to finally see more active combat in the arena. Part of me felt as if they were cheering to see me on the defense, and I decided to test the theory. As Caius came in with an upward swipe a grabbed him by the wrist and countered with my own uppercut. I hit his chin and knocked him into the air, but Caius displayed a bit of skill I'd yet to really see by taking the momentum of my punch and using it to flip and land right back on his feet.

"I don't feel like going down easy today." Caius muttered as he charged at me, delivering a flying knee to my face.

The blow knocked me off my feet, my back hitting the ground first a few feet from where I was standing. I sprung back to my feet and just let myself breathe for a moment, blood dripping from multiple cuts on the back of my hands and my forearms as I clenched my fist. I charged at Caius my fist cocked back ready for a punch, taking my bait, he moved to dodge the punch. I quickly switched up form and tackled Caius, carrying him across the arena and crushing him into the wall. Growing sharp, jagged metal out on both of my fist I began to punish Caius with an unending chain of blows. Punches to the midsection backhands across his face, I did everything I could think of to make full use of the metal on fist fists. He was already scraped cut bruised and beaten when I drew back for one final punch, throwing it as hard as I could at Caius but the thud I heard wasn't the impact of fist against flesh but fist against stone. Somehow Caius had disappeared.

"The hell?" I thought, ridding my hands of the metal, looking around the arena for Caius.

He was nowhere to be found, but in the middle of the arena was a disembodied shadow. I kept my distance but watched as the shadow stretched up and took the general shape of Caius before fully becoming the demon, with many of the wounds I'd given him seemingly erased.

"You're strong… if I didn't manage to get over here you might have killed me with that punch." Caius panted glowing blue blood oozing from his remaining wounds, "but like I said, I don't feel like going down easy today."

A light chuckle escaped me as I contemplated how to match Caius' ability to seemingly move through shadow, but as I noticed his shadow begin to rise up behind him I realized that I'd have a bit more to worry about. His shadow rose up to be twice his height and expanded into a hulking silhouette of himself, the shadow seeming moved of its own accord as it slammed it's fists on the ground while Caius got ready to come at me.

"This could be interesting…" I thought aiming a hand at him, "Crisis flash."

The beam of dark energy shot from my hand and exploded against Caius, or so I had thought. The dust kicked up was quickly blown away by a swing of Caius' shadow's hand, visible signs of damage on them both.

"Or this could be really annoying."I growled as I extended two blades from my forearms.

They came at me, I blocked Caius' initial strike with one of my blades, rolling out of the way as his shadow slammed it's hands down over me. The shadow kept up its attack, throwing a wide sweeping uppercut toward me. I vaulted over its fist and went for Caius, hitting him in the head with the broadside of my arm blade.

The blow sent Caius rolling across the ground, taking his shadow along for the ride, but as I thought Caius was right back on his feet. Changing tactics for a moment I shortened both arm blades so only the tip protruding from the skin over my wrist, I took to the air a flew toward Caius, raining down spheres of dark energy on him as I approached. As expected his shadow shielded him from the attacks, extending the blades again I landed on the shadows back and drove the blade into its shoulder.

The shadow howled in pain, shaking in an attempt to get me off its back. The shadow grabbed me when it wasn't able to shake me off, slamming me into the ground and pinning me there beneath its hand. Instead of trying to free myself I grew two large metal tentacles out from and had them both skewer the shadow multiple times as each ne wrapped around on side of its body. The shadow howled in pain as I had the two tentacles rip it in half, Caius letting out a pained howl as well as he feel to his knees.

"It looks like using my shadow like that was a bad idea after all…" Caius grunted as his shadow slowly changed back to normal.

I got to my feet slowly walking around Caius, the demon quickly swiveled on his feet and came at me with an uppercut. The hit connected and knocked me off my feet, my body nearly flipping midair but Caius came around and grabbed my head sinking into my shadow and slamming me headfirst into the ground. The impact stunned me, leaving me on the ground not knowing where I was for a moment. But a moment was all I took for Caius to run his hand through me from below. I let out a yell as the hand suddenly shot up through my body gasp when Caius withdrew his hand.

"Damn, forgot about the shadow under my back." I thought as I rolled over, slowly pushing myself off the ground. I knew that if any part of me was parallel to a shadow, it was an easy target for Caius.

As I got to my feet Caius reappeared from his shadow, my blood dripping of his right hand. I gripped the wounds in my torso, the blood freely running out of my body as I did my best to stand up straight.

"Why get up, you're just a human. With a wound like that you're going to die." Caius said as he readied for his final strike.

"I don't feel like going down easy today… " I laughed as he ran toward me, thrusting his arm toward me in an attempt to put another hole in me.

I let myself fall to the side to dodge the attack, catching myself on Caius' arm, holding him tight and I extended a blade from my arm. I brought the blade down and cut the arm off at the elbow, quickly bringing the arm and smashing it against Caius' head. The blow made Caius stumble, gripping his bleeding stump of an arm in shock.

"I guess that makes us even…now hold still, I want to try something new." I chuckled as I lifted my right hand, a visible green aura appearing around it. In my palm a similarly green light formed into a snake's eye, I glanced from my hand to Caius and smiled as he ran toward me again. Making the blade extending from my left arm a bit longer, I stepped just out of his path at the last moment and cut through his legs at the knees.

Caius cried out as he hit the ground face first, blue blood pouring from his three severed limbs.

"I told you to hold still but you just didn't want to listen." I said halfheartedly as I picked him up by his the back of his neck with my still glowing right hand, "Gorgon eye."

Caius's reached back at me with his remaining arm in attempt to stop me as his body slowly turned to stone, his pitch black skin now a pale gray. Once he'd completely turned to stone I dropped his body and began to walk away, Regulus staring down at me as I glanced up at him. But I felt as if his eyes were focusing more on the remains of Caius, as if something was going on that I hadn't noticed. Curious I turned around and looked; floating above Caius' body was a small black orb of light that suddenly shot toward me. The orb hit me and instantly sent waves of pain coursing through my body, bringing me to my knees as several beast men rushed into the arena. The first one to reach me quickly knocked me over the head with the hilt of a sword he was carrying, knocking me out.

* * *

I awoke as the guards dragged me through the hallway, still mostly in a daze, barely able to take in most sights and sounds. Not that there were any sounds to take in, and the only sights I could take in were the magical barriers that hid each cell behind the mirage of a wall. The two beast man guards stopped in front of my cell and tossed me in, for some reason I wasn't able to quite grasp my usual strength and I fell flat on the floor of the cell.

Pushing myself up I glanced around the cell and noticed that Mantis and Seraph were missing; the woman in the corner was still there, her barrier still up around her. I turned to the guards as the bars of the cell came down, trying to get up only to have the wounds Caius had given me earlier force me back down.

"Wait, where are they?" I cried weakly as the guards walked off, "Damn it…"

I took heavy breaths as I sat down against the wall of the cell, my body was aching and I could feel an intense headache building strength. I cursed under my breath as I let my head lean back against the cell wall, just focusing on my breathing for a while.

"I knew you'd be someone to watch, it's not every day that someone believes they can take master Regulus on and win." A familiar voice said from outside the cell.

"It's that bastard dragon again…" I muttered, opening my eyes lazily.

"I heard that you know, I took down the master's barrier." The dragon growled.

"Like I care. I'm basically in prison being forced to fight even when I have no desire to hurts my opponent." I scoffed turning my head to look at him.

"Look at it this way; you can use these fights to ensure that you defeat Regulus. Countless souls would be indebted to you and countless more would avoid a period of suffering." The dragon advised. "You owe it to that little girl, Nina was it."

"You sound pretty eager to get rid of your master." I hissed in a strained tone, a shudder chill running down my spine at the mention of Nina's name.

"I may be a hellfire dragon, but I do have a heart. My father made sure of that, I despise Regulus for kidnapping innocent warriors and children from their rightful places. Corruption is a thing done out of necessity alone, not in the search of the perfect fight." The dragon explained, his tone remaining the same but carrying clear disgust.

"What's your name anyway?" I asked, nodding slowly. "And even though you're right, I feel so weak right now I doubt I could even walk out of this cell the next time those guards come for me."

"My name is Dante, and as for your current weakness you can blame Caius. He isn't as dead as you think, nor is he an enemy of yours." The dragon explained, glancing down the corridor.

"But I turned the guy to stone?" I said raising an eyebrow at Dante.

"If I wasn't intent on killing you at the time I'd say I didn't appreciate that." Caius' Voice rang out as my shadow rose up off the ground and took his shape.

"Well ain't this some shit, how'd you pull this off?"

"Well the type of demon my father and I are have parasitic abilities in addition to what I used on you in the fight. That ball of light that hit you, that was me trying to get into your body and take it over by draining your energy while attacking your mind." Caius explained folding his arms.

"Ah, I see why you failed. So I guess you hate your father too?" I nodded as I felt all my pains subside a great deal.

"He hates me for not having the desire for power he has, I hate that he thinks he has the right to take over as many people he can just to get stronger."

"So I guess we're all allies then? If so I have one request, Dante make sure I stay in the same cell as her." I asked Dante as the dragon turned away.

"You don't have to worry about that, she asked me to do it already." He said as he walked off.

"She what?" I said motioning to the corner.

Again the woman opened her eyes to meet mine, a small smile forming on her lips. Caius sank back down and returned my shadow to its normal state as I walked over to the woman and sat in front of her. In response she edged of the wall and sat up, her eyes still locked on mine. The barrier around her came down and we just stared at each other for a moment or two.

"I was wondering how long I was going to have to wait for you to get here you know, it's not nice to keep a good friend waiting." The women said with the voice of a songbird. "I'm Diana; it's nice to finally meet the man behind Natura."

"And you know me because?" I asked, completely confused. If her voice threw me into the boat, her actual words put me in the middle of the ocean.

"Ugh, why can't men get over my voice? I mean I know it's a compliment but you guys never listen to what I say." Diana complained, sighing.

"A good slap usually helps you know, but I'm good. I really have no clue who you are and why you know me." I explained uneasily.

"Well how do you think Natura got here?" Diana asked folding her arms.

"Dreamcaster took an empty planet and did his thing." I stated, almost stuttering as if I was missing something.

"Well everyone has a mom don't they, even if they are pretty much a god." Diana shot back with a proud smile.

"Bullshit." I muttered pulling back a bit.

"No bullshit here, only the golden truth." Diana smiled, almost brightening the room somehow. "I'm Diana, goddess of dreams and making dreams reality."

"Well you know I have to ask now. Why are you here and what's your story?" I asked offering a handshake.

"For you, I'd answer any question; after all You're one of my favorite jobs after all." Diana said with a laugh as she shook my hand.


	25. Arena of sin: Day 2

Dark-*Clears throat* Guess who's Back!

Diana- Finally, how could you introduce me and just leave the story hanging like that?

Dark- Diana, hush.

Diana- What did you say? Do you know who i am?

Dark- *coughs* character in a story

Diana- Are you really pulling that card with me? Dreamcaster, Nightmare?

Dark- Enjoy the Chapter, gotta go. *runs off*

* * *

So if you want to know why I'm here I guess I have to tell you my story first, so here's the short version. There was a point in time where God decided to give man the things they always dreamed of, this was around medieval times when knights and wizards began popping up left and right. But ultimately the idea caused the dark ages, when God decided to close himself off to man when they began focusing on the dreams he'd made real for them and stopped focusing on thanking him for those dreams becoming reality. Dreams ranging from slaying mythical beasts to gain fame to a simple hook up with the man or woman they always hoped for. At the time I was an angel and I was fascinated by what the humans were doing and begged God to give man another chance. About a century later I was granted full reign over the dreams of men and women and could mold any empty place into whatever a person dreamed.

As my first act I took a man's dream of what hell was like and a young girl's dream of what heaven was like, and imprinted the dream on purgatory, thus creating what you know as the netherworld. Of course there was no real division at first here between the sin and salva sectors, when I first took up command of this world there was no need for it. It was only after I took the dreams of so many others and made them real that the need for separation became apparent. I soon realized that anyone or anything connected to a dream I had brought into reality was killed they came here, for a while things were still going fine. Then there came more malevolent and murderous creatures that wreaked havoc throughout salva sector so I banished them to sin sector and put up the barrier between the two sides.

But sadly after becoming immersed in the many minds of humans to discover their dreams I began to take on some of their less desirable traits. A side affect I was unaware of until I found myself thinking that finding all these dreams and deeming them worthy of being reality was too much work for just one person. Then I found you, you dreamt up Dreamcaster and Nightmare and I realized right then and there I had my chance to lighten my load. So I quite literally took your idea into myself and sometime later my sons were born. But what I hadn't realized was by using your dream I'd be not only be giving away most of my power, but I'd create a great deal of problems for everyone.

Still I enjoyed the pleasure of being a mother; although my kids grew quickly I still had time to gain their respect as their mother. Dreamcaster was always happy always ready to find the good in others, while Nightmare was always angry and frightened. I really felt sorry that he had to endure the nightmares and fears of thousands, but I couldn't do anything about it myself. But the real problems started when my sins finally got into doing my job along with me, Dreamcaster took up most of the work determining what dreams he'd make real, while nightmare was more of a cleaner. The children I had grown to know as being my own were slowly changing; Dreamcaster's happiness and friendly nature slowly became strict judgment and no faith, while Nightmare lost his fears and became full of hate. Soon they stopped taking my advice and whenever someone's dream seemed to be spiraling out of control either Dreamcaster would undo his work or Nightmare would make the dream a living nightmare.

Now as for how I ended up in this prison, in my weakened state after Dreamcaster and Nightmare began doing things their own way I decided that I'd need to appoint someone to govern over the two halves of the netherworld. The only two to step up were a dragoness from Natura and a demon from another world created by a dream. However when I went along with the demon, who you now know is Regulus he revealed that he already had friends on this side and he captured me. I was never a fighter, so in my weakened state all I could do was seal myself within my barrier and sleep. And when I slept I dreamt of you, and all the things you'd go through to ensure your dream survived against my sons, every possible thing that could happen based on your choices. You kept me entertained and hopeful for all this time even before you knew any of this could even happen. And I noticed that the more I saw you do the more of my old strength I seemed to get back, it's nothing compared to how I was before, but its better. And for that I thank you.

"So the netherworld isn't mine and neither are you but we're connected though your kids, my creations, and somehow you've been dreaming of me and regaining your strength by doing so?" I asked as I took all the information in.

"I know it sounds weird but it's all true, you make quite the action hero." Diana shrugged.

"And you said defending my dreams against your sons…does that mean I end up fighting Dreamcaster too?"

"Sooner than you might think, but yes you will fight him. Actually it seems that some of nightmare's fog is still clouding your memory let me help you with that." Diana nodded putting her hand over my face.

"What are…you talking about?" I said slowly, black smoke stream from my mouth into Diana's hand as I spoke. "What the…damn I left Mira behind when I fought nightmare."

"See, much better."

"Yeah I guess, but I pretty much remembered most of what I needed to know to survive from all these bumps on the head I got. But now I think I can take better advantage of this whole arena situation." I muttered as I cycled through my memories as best I could.

"I was hoping you'd say that. I have a few other things to help you out but for right now you only get one." Diana explained as she reached behind her and pulled out a small crystal that seemed to radiate energy. "There was one dream I made real that really required no work, a pocket dimension that creates a limitless supply of volatile energy. Whoever holds this crystal has full access and control of it, and it was originally intended to be used as a mode of execution. But I'm sure you can put it to better use."

She handed me the crystal and I looked it over, it seemed to have red and pink energy circulated inside it, but as I held it the pink slowly faded to black. A small smirk appeared on my face as I absorbed the crystal, instantly feeling a rush of energy.

"This isn't what I need to defeat your sons is it?" I chuckled as I looked at her.

"With the memory returns the attitude and the intelligence." Diana giggled with a nod.

"Dante, that dragon. He's the current ruler of Sin Sector in the future right?"

"He better be after all this, it's your job to make that happen. Oh and about Nina, if you keep your promise and kill Regulus you'll definitely see her again. Now go to sleep you'll want to be ready for your fights tomorrow." Diana laughed a bit.

"Wait, what about Nina?" I ask quickly, Diana's face suddenly becoming more serious.

"I said sleep." She ordered as she poked me in the forehead, and the next thing I knew I was out could.

I woke up in a daze in my usual spot in the cell, Diana in her corner, her barrier up once more. I immediately found myself wondering if the conversation the night before had actually taken place, or if it had been a dream.

"Either way I still have to fight today…" I concluded to myself.

I waited silently against the wall, cycling through my memories to see what I had ended up recalling and what I hadn't remembered until Diana helped me. I reflected on the fact that I'd definitely hit a different level of rage after the incident with Nina and I could feel that part of me held fast to that rage, like it was necessary to keep it there. But I brushed the feeling aside, rage was useful, because I knew I wasn't a hero. I was if not in fact and only in my mind a kid who wanted to do things his way, with the power to make sure he could. I just happened to be a good kid, an anti-hero, helping people when I could and doing whatever I want whenever I wasn't.

I was bought out of my thoughts when I felt someone walking down the hall, four feet and heavy. It was Dante; I was sure of it so I stood up and waited at the bars of the cell. Sure enough after a few moments Dante stepped up in front of the cell and let me out.

"He's plotting to kill you." Dante said without turning to me.

"Wouldn't you after I said I'd do the same." I asked with a smile.

"I would have come down and killed you in the spot."Dante shot back, chuckling.

"You mean you would have tried." I retorted, raising an eyebrow. "I guess you can't tell me who, or what I'm fighting today?"

"I'd rather you face your challenges blindly, it'll show how much of a fighter you are." Dante replied flatly.

I shrugged at his logic but didn't push the subject further, luckily I didn't have long to wait today once he left me to wait in the arena cells. Almost ten minutes after I entered the entrance in the arena opened, releasing me before the crowd. They all cheered but I just looked at the like they were idiots, I knew that come day 6 I'd have so much fun tearing the place apart. While I waited for my opponent to appear I made myself a replica of Mira, I kind of missed her now that I remembered her. In fact the silence in my mind bothered me; in the back of my mind I was hoping that the blade in my hand would start talking to me, but I knew it wouldn't happen.

After a few minutes of waiting a section of the arena's wall opened up, a bit bigger than the sections I had seen in the past days fights. "What the hell?" I muttered as a mass of blue-green ooze slowly forced its way through the opening. As the mass worked its way into the arena a large dark blue sphere swam into its center, leading the rest of the mass is it moved slightly towards me.

"Wait…a slime? Or would this be considered a gel? Either way how am I supposed to fight it?" I asked myself as I watched the slime for any sudden movements. I already knew that anything physical would most likely backfire on me if I tried it, and if it didn't backfires it would still have no effect on my opponent anyway. "I guess this'll come down to how smart this thing is."

There was a little over about thirty yards between the slime and me, so I decide that it was as good a time as any to test out a plan of attack. I readied a beach ball sized orb of dark energy in my hand, guessing that would be enough to slow down a slime I figured to be big enough to fill the average kitchen. I launch energy orb at the slime and it took the hit head on, the resulting explosion scattering hunks of slime in all directions. The earned boos from the crowd I was continuing to forget was even around, I guess quick battles weren't all to entertaining for them. But the boos suddenly turned to dull cheers as a length of slime shoot toward me out of the dust from the aftermath of my attack. I dodged the hit with a simple sidestep, but the rest of the slime's body went along with the shot, the blue sphere still within the main mass.

"Ok, it's more resilient than I thought but I think I have a target now. But how do I get through all of that body to get to the sphere…" I thought to myself as I put distance between my opponent and myself.

The slime came toward me again this time shooting out several strings of slimes toward me in an attempt to draw me in. I noticed that as it went its body picked up some of the bones that littered the arena and I could obviously see that the bones were slowly but surely dissolving. Knowing that I didn't want to experience being digested unless absolutely necessary I dodged every attempt the slime made to catch me. That was the fact until I stepped into a blob of its body that was thrown off by my first attack. The blob of slime held fast to my foot as I stepped in it, stretching as I tried to pull my foot free and pulling it back to the ground like a rubber band. Trapped I fired a beam of dark energy at the main mass of slime, aiming for the sphere, but the slime merely slowed and opened a hole in itself for the beam to pass through.

Cursing silently to myself I tried flying out of the slimes grasp, but the little glob of slime had seemingly gotten bigger while my attention was turned to the main body. It was then I noticed small globs of slime from around the arena were converging on me.

"Shit." I said to myself as I glanced down at the rope of slime tethering me to the ground as it continued to grow thicker and pulled me further down to earth. Then without warning a giant ball of knocked me out of the air and held me to the ground as the slime's main body enveloped me. Inevitably I found myself drowning inside the slime, my skin burning as the creature tried to digest me. Instead of wasting energy by trying to struggle, I tried to keep still while I thought of the best way to get out of the slimes body. Then a thought hit me, my plan was to fight in the arena for six days in an attempt to gain strength and kill Regulus anyway, why not absorb the damn thing.

"Better than drowning in slime I guess." I concluded with a nod as I began to absorb the slime, body and all.

I felt the slime quiver suddenly as a few minutes into the process of absorbing it and was spat out without warning into the arena. I coughed hard after taking a breath of the putrid air that hung within the arena; I had to admit that this slime was definitely smart and resilient for being able to spew me out of itself before I could finish the job of absorbing it. Again the crowd was booing, but I didn't care. I took a look at the slime satisfied that it was about half its original size, but annoyed that it had managed to keep my sword trapped within it. Though the slime's size had changed I noticed that the sphere inside it hadn't changed in size at all.

"Well, it's going to try and digest me either way." I thought as I charged toward the slime, creating a metal spike around my forearm.

The slime came at me as well the blue sphere hanging toward the back of its body, but one way or another I knew that wouldn't help it. I jumped toward the slime and stabbed the spike into its body, of course not even getting close to piercing the sphere. The slime started to pull me in as I adjusted the spikes positioning as best I could, lining its point up with the center of the sphere.

"Perfect." I said to myself as fired a thin beam of energy from the tip of the spike, piercing the slime's sphere and quickly expanded it until the entire sphere was enveloped by the attack.

The beam of energy ripped through the slime and hit the back wall of the arena, its body simply oozing tower the ground as the brain holding it together was destroyed. Pulling my sword free of the slime glanced up toward Regulus, simply glancing from him to the slime. Regulus raised a hand and another portion of the wall opened up and for a moment nothing happened, then pointed to the center of the arena and a large boulder of a diamond with a red core appeared. From the opening in the wall several more diamonds varying size rolled out and joined the large one in the center of the arena. The boulders then began fusing together and changing shape, forming a giant boy that slowly stood up as the head formed.

"A diamond golem, huh. All right, this should be a fun one." I said looking up at the beast.

"Finally together again, where's the ant I get to crush today." The golem bellowed as it looked down at me. "Hmm… this shouldn't take long."

Raising its foot the golem tried stomping on me, but I rolled out of the way. I dropped my sword, knowing that it'd be useless against something made of diamonds, and shot into the air, stopping when I was eye level with the golem.

"You'll have to be faster than that big guy, and trust me I can hit hard enough to break you." I pointed out, folding my arms as I looked into the golem's eyes, which were nearly indistinguishable from the rest of its body.

"I was in pieces a moment ago and now I'm in one piece, breaking through my body won't win this fight." The golem chuckled as he grabbed me. "And I'm not as slow as you may think."

"Good, I didn't want this to be too easy…" I grunted as a forced myself free of the golem's grip.

I dodged the golem's attempts to grab me again, charging dark energy to my fist as I searched the golem's body for the red core I had seen in the large diamond before. I for a moment I lost focus as the golem threw a punch at me, noticing at the last moment I punched the golem's fist before it connected. The golem bellowed in pain and took a step back, my punch severely cracking his hand. As he stared at me I noticed the red core appear in his hand as the cracks disappeared.

"Hmm, that didn't take long…going to have to be quick about this." I thought dodging a swipe of the golem's arm. "Alright, let's get this done."

Charging my fists with energy again I warped behind the golem and delivered a dark impact to his back, warping again to do the same his right leg and left arm. The golem bellowed in pain again, swing his arms wildly as I warped around and dealt blows the fractured his body. Smiling I warped to the ground and grabbed my sword, warping again top the top of the golem's head, dealing yet another dark impact to the golem's body. As the cracks spread through the golem's head he stumbled and slumped against the barrier that divided the arena from the crowd, with strangely didn't harm him at all. Taking my chance I drove my sword into the cracks on the golem's head, channeling energy through the sword into the cracks. The golem's crystal body seemed to drink in the energy I poured into it, so I gladly poured in as much as possible in hope of ensuring my plan would work.

"Dark burst!" I shouted as the energy exploded, ripping the golem's body apart and sending shards of diamond flying all over the arena.

The crowd roared as I slowly lowered myself to the ground, examining the remains of the golem. Though it irritated me to provide a show for these bastards I had to fight and gain whatever strength I could if I wanted to defeat Regulus. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted it as it rose up out of the diamond rubble. The Golems red core began to glow the diamond shards around the arena beginning to tremble. Warping to it I grabbed the core and absorbed it, assuming I'd find a use for it later.

I turned and looked up at Regulus, glaring at him with a defiant smirk on my face. The demon rose from his throne and stepped forward, waving a hand toward the arena. A sudden chill ran down my spine as tendrils of magical energy encircled me then faded from sight.

"Let's see how confident you are now…" Regulus called to me, the crowd ceasing their cheers, "Send in the next opponent!"

Regulus returned to his throne as the walls opened, a muscular white figure with bright red eyes stepping out into the arena. Apparently a male the creature had a smooth face, it's only defining feature being two slits where its nose should be. Spikes protruded from its elbows and knees while the small spikes on each of its feet made up for its lack of toes.

"You like something out of a show I used to watch." I chuckled clenching my fists.

I charged at the creature, it charging toward me in return. We collided in the middle of the ring, fists in each other's hands. Smiling I shifted my body, pulling the creature off its feet and throwing him across the arena. Twisting its body in the air the creature landed on all fours, pushing itself up to a standing position. Narrowing its eyes the creature ran toward me again, throwing a punch as a rolled out of its path. Spinning to face me the creature threw kick to my shoulder before I could react, sending me rolling across the arena floor. I quickly rolled into a kneeling position and glanced around the creature nowhere in sight; instinctively I rolled back as a heavy punch connected with the ground where I had been.

"Damn it… this thing's not half bad. I guess I'll have to be a little more serious." I thought as stood.

Cocking my fist back I tried channeling energy to my fist, but when I did a powerful shock ripped through my body. Dazed as the shock subsided I was wide open when the creature connected with a punch to my face, sending my flying into a pile of shards of the golem's body. I cried out in pain as several of the jagged shards impaled me as I crashed through the pile, hitting the wall, which only served to push the shards deeper. The crowd roared as I slowly pushed myself to my feet, the creature making its way toward me. Gritting my teeth I pulled the shards out of my sides and back as best I could. Thinking I could even the score I tried to launch a crisis flash, collecting the dark energy in my palm only for tendril of magic to attack my hand, causing the energy to violently explode.

The creature took that as his cue to strike, dashing toward me fast than it had moved before and riddling my body with punches, lifting my feet from the ground and finishing with a kick that sent me flying across the arena once more. I got back up, if only because that was all I could think to do while I figured out how to attack. I was bleeding heavily, and couldn't feel my right hand thanks to the explosion and it felt like my endurance was severely shaken. An idea came to mind and I immediately decided to test it, trying to extend a blade from my arm. I could only stifle a scream as metal spike erupted from my bones.

"I see what he did, anything he's seen me do won't work. Fuck, I didn't think he could screw with my powers…" I thought as I winced in pain, the creature coming for me again. "Damn it I can't really dodge like this…and warping may kill me…I need a way out!"

As I braced for the creatures strike I suddenly felt the ground give way beneath me and fell into a dark space. I glanced around as the space came alive around me , everything was red and seeming to have blotches of black appear and disappear at random. Every now and again an arc of red electricity would shoot through the air, mostly between the metal fragments that littered the space.

"What the hell?" I said aloud as I looked beneath my feet, a subtly shifting platform of energy beneath my feet.

"You that contains the essence of the key…" A voice said as the ghost of an old man faded into view, "The power of this place known as the nexus to our people was used to punish the enemies of our kingdom until our demise. Now that you are the key that controls this place accept its blessing of power to aid in your future battles…"

"I intend to." I said with a pained smirk as the ghost vanished, "Dark's nexus…I like it. But I wonder…"

Taking a chance I retracted the spikes in my arm with no ill effect. Confident, I channeled dark energy to my hand and fired it into the nexus. Smiling I focused on my healing ability, closing my wounds to stop the bleeding. My condition having improved I took a deep breath.

"This place is supposed to contain a limitless supply of volatile energy right?" I thought outstretching my arms, ready to absorb what I could, "Give me your worst."

At the thought I was immediately bombarded by massive amount of energy in the form of electricity. I took in as much as I could before dropping to my knees, the torrent of energy instantly stopping. Shaking my head as I stood once more I knew I had to get back to the arena to kick some ass. Feeling a slight tingle in my fingers I lifted my hand, as I did my finger seemed to cut open tearing in space. Raising an eyebrow I placed my hands on either side of the tear and pulled it open until I saw the arena, the boo's of the crowd filling the air.

"Ha… round two." I chuckled as I made sure the hole was big enough to get through.

* * *

Zero- Did That fool really just run away?

Tidus- They are some of his strongest...

Zero- Any creature with confidence in his strength fights all opponents.

Spectre- You're just mad that you haven't been spotlighted yet.

Sabre- This isn't the time for an argument. The chapter is over, people have things to do.


End file.
